


Hands And Paws

by 13ineedpills13



Series: Obey Me! Main OC Stories [4]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Amnesia, Angels, Blood and Gore, Bullying, Cats, Character Death, Coping, Demon/Human Relationships, Demons, Depression, False Accusations, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, Just Add Kittens, Love, M/M, Moving On, Murder, Other, Pets, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:28:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 47,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25377685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13ineedpills13/pseuds/13ineedpills13
Summary: - COMPLETE STORY -Almo Armbrecht, a 16 year-old boy and the second human to participate in the exchange program, dies and gets reincarnated as a 2 week-old kitten in Devildom. A certain demon finds him resting on the halls of the castle and decides to take him in.While one of them is forced to move on from the unfortunate event, the other one is forced to witness this.----*kinda* Inspired by A Whisker Away.The relationships are not romantic.
Relationships: Barbatos/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Series: Obey Me! Main OC Stories [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900720
Comments: 33
Kudos: 93





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Almo is the second main OC I will be using in my stories that will go in this series called Obey Me! Main OC stories. 
> 
> Almo is a 16 year old in this story, so his facial and bodily descriptions are going with that. However he will be 22-23 (same as Fulya) in my other stories.  
> So he will change. In the other stories, he will be a 1.80 cm tall (6 ft.), 69 kg (1.52 lbs) man. He has light brown/taupe hair and light brown eyes, originally. However, his adult version has light beige dyed hair. He will have a slight beard depending on the story and the details given. 
> 
> His backstory is mostly present/hinted in this story, however some stories will take a place in an AU where the events in _Hands And Paws_ never happened. But his childhood will be pretty much the same. As for identity; He is German and has an American citizenship. I am not sure about what his sexuality will be yet ":> Though it is said in the story that he is straight, if I didn't delete that part. I am not so sure. His sex is male and he identifies as a man.

~~Hello there!~~ ~~Hi!~~ ~~Nice to meet you.~~ ~~Pleased to meet you.~~

Hello.  
I suppose you clicked onto this thing because it seemed intresting to read, right? Why else would you click anyway? Well, maybe you clicked on it accidentally, but that doesn't really matter now, does it...

If you do not wish to concern yourself with this story, then I completely understand. Feel free to click out and go on with your life.  
But if you do have free time and want to learn about this... well, "story", first of all thank you. Second of all, I'd suggest you to get a warm beverage and sit back, pop on your earbuds if you have a pair and listen to your favorite tunes. Maybe get a lemonade, if it's summer. 

Anyway. I suppose you deserve an introduction. My name was Almo Armbrecht, the main character of this story. I was sixteen years old, and a sophomore at a public highschool that's 1.5 hours away from my home, in United States. Even though I am German from both of my parents' sides, I only know a few german sentences and nothing in particular about my culture. I left Germany with my parents when I was seven, and immigrated to America, specifically New York.   
My father had a great job opportunity there, and luckily, I never had to worry about what I was going to eat tomorrow. I had a couple friends, but they distanced themselves from me in time. And by the time I went to highschool, I was all alone.  
Then I was invited for an exchange program in Hell by the demon lord himself. It sounds stupid, but I am telling the truth. I stayed in a huge mansion with 7 other demons, rulers of hell, each representing the seven sins. There were 3 other students like me. Two angels, and a human. Though the human was much stronger than me... My stay was supposed to be for a full year. And apart from these, I don't have anything else to say about my past. 

You may have noticed that I wrote everything in past tense up there. 

That is because I am, unfortunately, dead at the moment. 

I was killed when I was at House of Lamentation, by a demon that was waiting near there. I went out to buy some milk and eggs for the cake I was going to bake alone. I had my favorite coat on as well... It happened in the afternoon, at 12th of April. Around 4:18 PM. Two days before my birthday.

Without knowing what was waiting for me, I started walking to the main street to go to the convenience store. I passed by the small shoe-store next to the stairs I had to use to get to the street. Saying hi to the owner, I talked to her for a while before climbing up the stairs. A hand grabbed me when I turned to my left to walk towards the road that lead there, pulling me between two apartment buildings and covering my face with it's hand. The figure had two, thick horns, and a thick tail, long enough to wrap itself around my neck. Whoever the demon was, he was quite strong and his hands were pretty damn white. 

Of course, I tried to get away and scream, but he shoved his tail in my mouth to shut me up. Still, I tried to whimper loudly for help. But no one came. 

He...  
Well.  
I don't think I want to talk about it exactly. In detail, at least.

I could, however, talk about my varying selection of wounds since it's kind of fun.

To sum it up; several parts of my hands were chopped off, my right leg was broken in 8 different places, my heart was ripped apart from my body and thrown to a nearby sidewalk, my lip was busted and several teeth were broken, not to mention the violent bruises all around my legs and arms when I tried to flee. I was strangled to death, and the demon tried to eat me. But he was spotted by someone so he had to run away. Traces of skin and hair was found underneath my nails, there was blood underneath my heel.

In short, I wasn't the prettiest person around this town.

...

How am I so calm when I talk about all this?

Simple; Nothing seems that scary when you're dead.   
Because... Death is just, simply, the end. Nothing could get worse. Plus, my death wasn't too painful towards the end. Everything was numb and I felt weak, sleepy. My breathing slowed down along with my heart rate, and then my eyes closed.  
And then, I slept.  
Never to wake up again. 

I know this place is very dark and you can't really see anything, so... how about turning on the lights? 

Well, you can't really touch anything and I am too small to do anything but...

Why? Uh, well...

Anyway. You'll see it once he is here- Oh, hear that? He is already here. He always takes a strong step and a lighter one when he heads to his room. Sometimes he matches his footsteps with the rhythm of a song he likes. Hm... click clack- click clack-lack-lack... click clack-clack clack-lack... How does he even walk normally in a rhythm like that? 

Oh, he turned out the lights...

\---

"...What is a kitten doing in here?" He asked to himself, as he crouched down to investigate the small, white, and strangely chocolate-brown ball of fluff which was sleeping on top of the staircase at the ball room. It choose the center as a bed with it's tiny arms and legs curled like a tennis ball. He poked the kitten with his finger to check if it was alive. To his relief, the kitten made a weird "mrraw" sound the moment his finger it's back.

"...You cannot sleep here. You're lucky no one has stepped on you yet." He tried to shake the kitten to wake it up, but to no avail. The kitten showed no signs of _wanting_ to get up. It protested by stretching and covering it's face with it's tiny white paws, which he find adorable.

It was a huge secret, but he had a soft spot for cats. Partially because of his fear and disgust of rats. They used to keep a lot of cats around in there before, but when the rat population reduced, they left one by one. He liked dogs as well, however, cats were sneaky creatures and were insanely smart if they wanted to achieve something. The way their eyes shined in a way he just couldn't describe in the dark, full of mystery, was amazing to him. He wondered if these animals were able to sense time and acknowledge it, but given that he would probably never get an answer to that question, he just decided to dismiss it for another millennia.

"Mister, what are you doing on the floor?"

"I am getting this kitten out." He quickly says and hopes that the unfamiliar woman didn't notice his flinch when she called out to him. Quickly regaining his composure, he stares at her. "Deal with the rooms on the first floor please. I believe they need some dusting."

"Of course." The woman in a black and white maid dress left, going down the stairs with soft movements. He sighed after he was sure that she left, and flipped the kitten around with his huge hand, compared to the kitten. He flipped it to it's left side, then right, appreciating the soft and warm fur. The kitten mewled in protest, and he finally got the cat on his arms.

"I cannot keep you inside..." He said and thought, _You seem to be around two weeks old. How did you even survive on that cold floor? Where is your mother?_ , before putting the kitten inside his jacket. He tried his best to make it comfortable, but as hidden as possible and started to walk down the familiar hallways.

Once he reached the backyard, he took out the cat gently and put it on the grass. The kitten was fully awake now, staring at him with blue eyes that looked like a huge void. This part of the garden was covered with a huge umbrella-type-cloth, tied to the ancient pillars. No one was there today. No one could come in, since this part was kept in great secret. It's where the king would take his consorts in his harem, man or women, and have endless of fun. It was prohibited for any other person to look, hear, or touch the king's consorts besides the king's personal butler and the consort's maids and butlers that worked in the harem, so of course it would be empty.

"...Stop staring at me like that." He said and kneeled down in front of the cat, smiling with a troubled expression. "You are pathetic. So weak and small... All alone in this world. I wonder, if that was how he felt like in his last moments as well."

The kitten just stared at him, not giving any response.

"...I asked the prince to let me switch timelines, so I could prevent this. But I cannot do that. I am not allowed. I can easily wipe the obstacles in my way out of existence, but I cannot. It is infuriating..." The man frowned with what seemed like to be regret, misery, and anger. With his back hunched towards the kitten, hands on his lap, and head bowed down to look at it, he looked tired. "Go back to wherever you came from, and never show your face in these halls again. You won't be happy in here. Not when the prince's wrath and the distraught of everyone is still fresh."

The kitten had the audacity to get close to the man and rub it's face to his hand and purr, causing the man to sigh and put two fingers on the kitten's tiny head, scratching it. 

"...I told you to stop looking at me like that. I am not going to take you in."

He _did_ take the kitten in secret that day, despite of complaining about how heavy it felt on his chest and how disgusting it smelled. However, he knew that this kitten could ease his pain a bit. Distract him. The kitten smelled just like him after all. Like the sun.

He took the kitten back inside and enters the kitchen. "...Are you a male?" The man, whose name was, the one and only, Barbatos, gently picks the kitten and stares at it's bottom to figure out the answer to his question. After a couple seconds of the kitten freaking out, wiggling in it's arms, it calms down and accepts it's fate as the butler continues to stare with a blank face. It was hard to figure it out on a kitten, for some strange reason, and he took around a minute to conclude that this kitten was a male one. The kitten was pretty fluffy and looked big for his age because of this, and he was pretty clean. 

"...Are you hungry?" He puts the kitten down on the counter and went over to the cabinet. The door was locked and the curtains were pulled, so no one could see the kitten. He pulled out a bag of treats and a carton of milk, along with some water and eggs. The butler places down the kitten on the counter, and the kitten takes a loaf position, watching the butler make him some food. Since there was no formula in the house, he was going to make his own. 

But was giving a two week old kitten a mixture of water, milk and eggs a good idea? He remembered that giving this to the kittens back in the days helped them to get their strength. Maybe it was just a Devildom thing that cats weren't allergic to milk in there. But kittens aren't lactose intolerant since they drink their mother's milk, right? Well, it is better to be safe than sorry. He scrapped the idea of making formula on his own and put everything where it was before. Then decided try and give him some treats instead. But wouldn't the kebbles be too big for his mouth? Plus, can he even chew yet?

"...This is going to be more troublesome than I thought." He said to the kitten and all of a sudden, a lightbulb turned on in his head. _We still have some formula left. Where was it? The fridge, maybe?_ He walked towards the fridge and opened it to look around it, pushing some of the contents away to look for it. He then got on his knees to look for it on the lower shelves, frowning without noticing to reach for it. He found it at the deep corners of the fridge, hidden behind the huge cabbage in there.

"Bingo." He said with hilariously little emotion, and took the box from there. He checked the expiration date, he had a week and two days left until it expired, and that was good enough for now. He got up and started to prepare the formula, but felt something nudging on his feet. He looked down to see the brown and white kitten, staring at him on two legs, putting his tiny claws on his pants to stay up.

"...Do you want me to pick you up?"

The kitten meowed as if he understood him. 

As if... A certain angel's, along with a human's image popped up in his mind. They always insisted on helping him cook as well. As much as they were an underfoot and kind of made his job hard, their company was never boring. It was fun to bake with them. They told stories, made snarky remarks at each other, smeared flour all over themselves. It was a hassle to clean up afterwards. But they smiled. They laughed...

Without saying a word, Barbatos picked up the kitten and put him on his chest, between his jacket and green shirt. He felt the kitten's claws piercing through the fabric and touching his chest, and it hurt. But it wasn't unbearable. It tickled as well. The kitten seemed nervous, but he soon relaxed and put his head on his chest.

He wiped down the tiny tear on hus eyelid and started working, heating up the water and preparing the package.


	2. Cold

_Ta-da!_

_I am a cat!_

_You've definetly seen that one coming, right? I mean, it was even written on the summary, right?_

"Where are you looking at?"

_Oh, there he is... Barbatos._

The kitten stretches his joints and yawns, then jumps off from the bed and meows loudly. He walks towards his owner, and starts to go back and forth between his legs and brush it's face and body on them, purring as he did so.

"Be quiet. Headmaid would freak out if she learns that I have a strict no-pets policy, but then keep a cat for myself."

"Meoow..." _I guess that makes sense..._

"You hungry?"

"Mraaw!" _I am!_

"But you just ate. You'll get fat if you eat too much."

"Mraww!" _Sir, I am not fat..._

"...Fine. Only a few treats then. I guess I can use you as a dumbbell when I do squats in the evening."

"Meow? Meow! Mrrrrow! Mrraaw!" _Really? Oh hell yes! Come on! I want treats!_

"I expect you to catch those demonic rats later on."

The cat didn't respond to that and followed the slightly smiling Butler, walking towards the cabinet that was locked when he climbed there and dropped every single object inside. Photographs, the prizes Barbatos got from cooking competitions and some other unimportant stuff, just to tear open the bag of treats inside. With the twist from the small key, the cabinet opened and Barbatos pulled out the chicken flavoured treats inside. They were hard on the outside and squishy on the inside. 

A few thunders and lightenings hit different parts of Devildom as rain poured from the sky, falling to the windows with pitts and patts. The light bulb Barbatos had in his room was slightly yellow, so his room was pretty noticeable from the outside when the lights were open. Luckily, he mainly used candles and dim gas lamps, he hated overly lit places. But since he bumped into the cat's food bowl and litter box quiet a lot, or tripped on him, he had to get a lamp for his room. He sat on the floor, next to the half full food bowl he had for him, and put the treats in it. He was going to change the water later on. While the cat quickly went over there and started eating, Barbatos watched him and gave a few strokes to the cat's half brown-half white fur on his back.

_Yeah... It was quiet shocking for me when I realized I was a literal cat. Paws, claws, the nut sack, everything.  
My endless sleep was disturbed when something poked my back. It was warm, but had a weird texture to it. Almost like a cloth. I didn't realized that I was supposed to be dead just yet, so, as if my mother was trying to wake me up for me to go to school, I groaned and begged for a few more minutes.._

_Except it wasn't a groan. And I didn't speak. It was a fucking meow._

_But it felt strangely natural, so I continued laying down there. The ground was hard and cold, and it was pretty uncomfortable. The weird thing continued to poke my back until I head it speak in a very familiar voice. "...You cannot sleep here. You're lucky no one has stepped on you yet."_

_I instantly recognized the voice, and tired to open my eyes to look at him. But, for some strange reason, I felt the need to strech my arms and legs. So, I did so and brought my hands on my face to rub my eyes. But instead of hands, I felt a few, warm and soft things, along with a fur. I had to keep my shock quiet when I heard a lady's voice. "Mister, what are you doing on the floor?"_

_"I am getting this kitten out." Kitten? "Deal with the rooms on the first floor please. They need some dusting."_

_"Of course..." The lady said and left. And before I knew it, the familiar man put something very big and warm on my chest and stomach and started to flip me around and shake me gently. I tried to tell him to stop, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was a small "mew". Then it hit me._

_I was seriously a cat._

_"I can't keep you inside..." He said, and then I was picked up and put inside somewhere very warm. I could hear a steady heartbeat, and could sniff a familiar cologne. It hurt my nose and first and made me sneeze, which made the man chuckle, and but quickly got used to the smell. I wondered if I was in a dream (or heaven) or something. But everything felt too real for it to be a dream. He walked and walked, for a while._

_Then, I was being put on a very cold, damp grass and made my hands- paws uncomfortable. I wanted to sleep in that warm spot... I looked up at the man and confirmed my suspicions. It was Barbatos. He seemed... Well, I couldn't put my finger on it, but he never looked like this before. I am bad at describing emotions and seeing right though people. But I was sure it wasn't anything good._

_First of all, his hair was pretty messy. Which is never the case, this man brushes his hair with three differently shaped brushes everyday and takes care of it pretty well. Second of all, he was wearing a grey ribbon on the left side of his chest. I have no idea what that meant. But it seemed pretty unsettling to me. Third of all, his shirt smelled weird. I don't know how to explain the smell, but when I sensed it, the first thing I thought of was tears. Fourth of all, his shoulders were slumped. The Butler of the Demon Lord carried himself with pride all the time. He would never let it show that something upset, or defeated him._

_"Stop staring at me like that... You are pathetic." Well, thank you, Barbatos. "So weak and small." I know. "All alone in this world..." Stop rubbing that into my face. I know I don't have any friends. "I wonder if that was how he felt like in his final moments as well."_

_..._  
 _The hell are you talking about? Who's "he"?_

_"...I asked the prince to let me switch timelines, so I could prevent this. But I cannot do that. I am not allowed. I can easily wipe the obstacles in my way out of existence, but I cannot. It is infuriating..." He spoke, and I listened closely. I had no idea who he was talking about. I didn't have a single idea about why I was a cat, let alone I was dead, during those times... And why he looked so sad. I didn't like it at all. "Go back to wherever you came from, and never show your face in these halls again. You won't be happy in here. Not when the prince's wrath and the distraught of everyone is still fresh."_

_Even though I had no idea what he meant, I still wanted to cheer him up a bit. So, I tried to touch his hand and when that didn't work, I decided to rub my face on them. A low rumble came out from my own throat and startled me. Yeah, right. I was a cat... I forgot._

_Well, at least that worked. He laughed, a beautiful, rare sound and made me want to smile as well. I felt two fingers scratching my head, and all of a sudden I was picked up again. He brought me to the kitchen and made me some food after that._

"...You need a name." He said all of a sudden, perking the kitten's ears up. The kitten stared at him for a moment before continuing to eat his food, as if he didn't care at all. "At least show some interest. I am going to determine your name for the rest of your life."

After the kitten was done with his food, he went for the water bowl and started sipping it. 

It's been a week since he came there, and he was adjusting rather quickly. But he freaked out when he saw Barbatos out of the shower without a towel on his waist, since no one was in his room anyway. Barbatos stared at the cat with a puzzled face, before starting to wear his night clothes (which consisted of a pair of boxers and a white shirt. It was spring, and he wasted to time with getting rid of his thick pajamas he wore during winter). He blamed it on the fact that he opened the bathroom door a little too fast, maybe the kitten freaked out because of that.

The other time the cat acted pretty strange was that he didn't groom himself and didn't mind being inside the water as Barbatos gave him a bath in his shower. Last time he checked, cats fucking hated water. Maybe this cat was an exception, he didn't know.

The third thing that happened made him cover his eyes with his hand and chuckle, shaking his head.   
The cat had actually used his toilet to shit and accidentally flushed it because he stood on the button as he did that. Then he jumped five foot into the air because the sound startled him, and knocked over the cup Barbatos' toothbrush, toothpaste tube and razor was in. 

In short, he was already a handful.

"...Aarush?"  
 _No._

"Apollo?"  
 _Too cliche._

"Sun?"  
 _Did you leave your imagination in kindergarten?_

"April- No, that's a girl's name..."  
 _Congratulations for realizing that._

"...Sunday."

The kitten's ears twitched and he turned towards him, with curiosity in his eyes.

"You like that name?"

"Mraaw." _Yeah._

"Sunday it is then..." The butler reached towards the kitten and gave him a few loving strokes, smiling.

"Welcome home, Sunday."

\---

"I'm leaving. Don't wreck out the room while I'm gone." 

_Hey, quick question. Where are you going?_ The cute kitten thought. Curious as ever as he was, he decided to follow his owner that day. Going through the shadows, and following his owner's way. Now that he was a kitten, everything was larger and ten times as scarier as it was before. The small and soft pads on his paws helped him to walk quietly, it felt a bit weird since ge felt like he was walking on water filled balloons. Swinging his tail around, and being careful with not stepping on pebbles on the way, he walked and walked. On building's rooftops, on top of walls, through small tunnels, bushes, trees... 

His owner all of a sudden started to walk much faster when he spotted someone familiar, and the kitten followed. Hiding behind a huge metal piece that was leant on a wall, he stared at the small street between two buildings that were built way too close to each other. He spotted a familiar red head over there, tall and broad as ever. But instead of flashing the usual smile at his butler, a straight expression, ridden of all emotion, was on his features. Perhaps he was angry. Perhaps he truly felt nothing. In any way, he stood there, in front of the open portal.

His owner gave a small bow at his boss, The Prince, before stepping into the portal behind him. The kitten, feeling an urge to follow them, ran into the portal at the last second. He felt coolness on his paw and stared down at it. He had stepped into the muddy water as he ran. It had rained a while ago, so puddles here and here was expected. He smelled the fresh air of the Human Realm quietly, taking it into his tiny lungs.

He recognized his surroundings in an instant.

They were very close to his house. In fact, if he could take the 34D numbered bus, he could go to his own house in less than an hour. There was a giant graveyard at the other side of the street, pretty close to a huge, historic Cathedral. He forgot it's name, the signs were written in Ancient Greek. The kitten followed the movements of his owner and the prince, following them to the graveyard where they met the rest of the brothers and the angels, along with his human friend.

The small buzzing in the back of his head, which has been there ever since he became a cat, stopped at once when he heard someone mentioning his name. He turned to the direction of the voice and spotted the younger angel, who was staring at the coffin with big tears in his eyes and red cheeks. The older angel was rubbing his back, swallowing and closing his eyes a few times.

Then he turned at the brothers. Each with tears in their eyes as the funeral service started.

It was a sunny day. It was very warm as well, so warm that he felt hot in his own fur.

Bees, birds and butterflies passed sometimes, singing songs and bringing wonderful breezes with them. 

The sunlight peeked and made spots on the ground between the leaves of the huge tree they were underneath.

The grass around them moved with the gentle breeze in the air, fluttering his whiskers and fur.

And he stared at the person in the coffin from the tree branch he climbed to see everyone better.

Of course.  
It was himself, wearing a grey and gold outfit with his hair softly falling on his face, and the white pillow his hesd was resting under. His face didn't held any colour, and most of his wounds were covered up with the outfit he was wearing.

His friends were crying in front of him. Even Lucifer was hanging his head low as the funeral service went on, he could see his shoulders quivering. 

_...Oh._   
_It all makes sense now._   
_I really am dead._

"I... I can't stare at him any longer." The beautiful demon puts a hand over his eyes to hide his red, glassy eyes and completely ruined eye make-up. He must've looked hideous to everyone else now. But did it really matter, when the human he loved and cared about the most was gone in a single day, just like that? The thought itself was enough to make his breath hitch loudly, and he leaned on his other human, the powerful sorcerer, for support as he cried.

Beelzebub was quiet. Not a single sound came out from him, besides his uneven breathing. His vision was blurry and he was clenching his chin to stop himself from crying. In a moment where even Lucifer felt weak, he had to be the one to be strong and quide his brothers. He was physically the strongest. And he fought the most during the Celestial War due to his insane strength. 

His facial expression was about to fall apart when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Satan's hand, who had been invisible throughout the whole thing. Out of everyone, he was the one that was the least close to him. He understood that he frightened the boy due to his sin, he wasn't stupid enough to fall for _The Satan's_ calm façade. However, for some reason, the boy's death hurt him greatly and filled him with regret. A regret of not being able to laugh with you even once.

Leviathan, on the other hand, clutched on the boy's phone tightly. With shaking hands, he unclocked it and saved all of your pictures on Devilgram before deleting your account completely, with tears streaming down on his face freely and falling on the screen. He wiped them off with his sleeve, leaving a trail of sparkly, colourful dots behind on the screen. He locks the phone again and places it agganist his chest, remembering the last time he promised Leviathan to play video games with him, choking down into sobs.

Lucifer was...  
He was empty.  
Like a shell without a snail inside it.   
He didn't want to feel anger for the demon that took the boy's life away. He didn't want to cry because he fucking died. He didn't want to feel disappointed that the exchange program was cut short. He didn't want to feel guilty because he was thinking about the program even now. He didn't want to feel sorry for Diavolo and his reputation. He didn't want to be concerned about where your soul went. He didn't want to feel anymore. He was a coward. He always was.

Mammon falls on his knees in front of the coffin, staring at his favorite human's face. "Why did ya have to go outside alone? Hm? I know ya can hear me, Almo. I told you to not take a step outside without MY company... I was... I wanted to protect you, ya know. I really did.. Why didn't you listen...?" The second oldest puts a hand on the coffin, sighing shakily to hide his pain and clutches the grass underneath him. "...I can't even sense your god damn soul. None of us can. Where... Where did you go?" 

"Wherever Almo's soul went, it is not in Celestial Realm. If that was the case I should've gotten the news first. Why can't anyone listen to me? He is not dead." Simeon's voice was oddly angry, making everyone fall silent as they came back from the graveyard, moving towards the portal. The normally patient angel had never yelled at another person before. That alone showed how much sorrow be had built up in himself "A person's soul is missing and their family doesn't even know that we are holding a funeral for him. **This is not about the exchange anymore, Almo is**..."

"What are we supposed to do then? Is it my fault that you cannot sense his soul?" Solomon frowns and tightens his grip on the sobbing demon on his shoulder. He had been oddly bitter about this whole thing and extra bitchy this past weekend. He still had the birthday present he picked out for the boy that was a few years younger than him, wrapped neatly on a blue box. "Stop with your childish behaviour and just accept the fate Almo went through."

"Almo didn't die, Solomon! No, he didn't! He promised to bake cupcakes with me, he cannot die just yet... Not now..." The smaller angel's eyes were already welled up with big tears, and they were streaming down his face now. Hugging Simeon's waist while he cried his heart out. 

The Prince stared at the coffin and did something very surprising. Despite of knowing that he were going to be unheard, he clasped his hands together and closed his eyes, quietly praying to the old man up above. Barbatos still had no idea what he prayed for to this day. However, he had never seen the prince pray ever again.

"You could've prevented this, Barbatos. Why didn't you?" The Avatar of Wrath speaks with great calmness, ironically. But everyone knew it was an act. Given the chance, he could probably strangle the other demon out of rage alone. Barbatos looks down and thinks of an answer. He knows he cannot shift the blame on Diavolo for not letting him change the timelines. What else was he going to say? 

"...I simply did not feel the need to check in the future anytime soon. Therefore I didn't know this was going to happe-"

_SLAP!_

Lucifer quietly lowered his hand ignoring the sting it got as the result of the harsh slap that made Barbatos stumble. The older demon put a hand on his own cheek in shock, staring at the fallen. "...If I could remember the first time I've seen my genitals, I could remember the time when you didn't feel the need to look into the future, dear Barbatos."

The kitten stands there, stunned and quiet.

The coldness of death brushed by his whiskers again.


	3. Bowtie

"Lucifer, look at me." 

The fallen strangely didn't followed the commands of the prince, as he walked away from the grave yard after the coffin was buried on the ground, all alone. The kitten flopped down from the bench, walking aimlessly towards his owner again. He looked like a wounded animal, begging for attention and constantly crying. The rest of the brothers awkwardly looked at each other, and then the butler who was holding his right cheek. His face was pained, his brows were furrowed. Likely from the humiliation of being slapped like a child in front of everyone he talked to on a daily basis. 

However, he soon turned back to normal, ignoring the bright red handmark. His expression was as blank as ever. He took a cold water bottle from the bench he was sitting on and pressed it agganist his cheek. It felt wonderful, having something cold on a burning area. "...Join Lucifer, all of you. I have a few things I need to take care of."

"Alright." and "Take care." came out from Asmodeus and Solomon. They were the first ones to leave with slumped shoulders, and soon all the brothers followed them. Mammon had his arm around Leviathan's shoulders much to the younger's protests. He couldn't take seeing his younger brother like that. Satan and Beelzebub exchanged one last look with the butler, and then left, with Beel following from far behind.

The butler looked down when he felt something warm and rumbling on his leg, slightly startled at first. His expression visibly relaxed and his shoulders slumped down when he saw his darling fluffy kitten, troubled yet smiling. "Sunday... Why did you follow me? I told you to stay inside." He sat down on the bench after saying these things, taking the kitten on his lap. The kitten's purring intensified, and he started to knead on the fabric of the butler's pants. 

"Are you trying to make me feel better? Such an Almo thing to do..."

 _But I AM Almo..._ The kitten thought. Despite of seeing his own dead body, he wasn't too bothered about it. Maybe it was because he wasn't a bloody mess, his clothes were clean and the coffin he was laying on looked very comfortable. Maybe it was because he looked very peaceful in there. It was mostly pity he felt for his own body, as if he saw a beggar child in the streets, in skimpy clothing and craving for love, rather than money.

He was incapable of crying. The thought alone made him lay on the bed after the funeral, or the warm side of the room where the dying sun's lights flashed in through the window for hours. His chest ached for the human life he missed out on. He had so much to explore, so much to do in this world. He thought of his parents, his pets... And the brothers. Watching them beaten up emotionally like that was the worst part.

Just two weeks ago.

Everything was fine two weeks ago.

Why did it have to happen like this?

But even so, he continued to lay down on the butler's warm lap, feeling his hands stroke his fur. This man wasn't a mysterious, creepy guy to him anymore, he was more like a friendly giant. This thought made him want to snicker, how much the image of the butler changed when he spent his days pretty close to him was astonishing. He slept with him, watched him dress up, and generally relax when he had a day off. The days where he came home early was the best. He would make himself coffee, change into comfortable clothes and maybe read a book, or pet his head as he watched the news or did some extra paperwork. 

His face early in the morning, just before he woke up, was the funniest. His hair sticked out in every direction, his mouth would be a little open sometimes, a small drool coming out. His clothes would be disheveled, and he would genuinely look relaxed unless he had a bad dream. However, he also had pretty bad habits.

He ate so little most of the time. Mostly due to his bad schedule, he would only eat a small toast and raspberry jam around 5 AM, drink some water and proceed to not eat anything until 2 PM. 4 PM if he was extra unlucky and busy. And that food would be usually just some milk bread and fruit juice. He didn't have dinner most of the time, but when he did, it was usually white rice and boiled vegetables, maybe some meat with it. It wasn't like he didn't know how to prepare food for himself, ge just didn't have the time. How did he even have the energy to work after eating so little was a complete mystery. Sometimes Diavolo forced him to sit down and eat with him.

He made sure to check the weather forecast every night before he went to bed and prepared an umbrella by his door. He could use his ability to check the weather, but he prefered not to. He seemed to have a distinct dislike for warmth, as he never slept under a blanket even in rainy nights. However, he didn't mind Alm- _Sunday_ sleeping on him. He actually thought he was suffocating when the kitten fell asleep on his chest.

He was a pretty different person than the kitten thought.

"...He used to do the most repulsive stuff whenever he noticed my irritation. It was very bothersome to clean up afterwards and didn't do any good to me."

_Gee. Thanks. Last time I checked, dressing up a chicken in a tuxedo wasn't repulsive. ___

__"Like that time when he dressed all of the chicken in the garden in tuxedos. Poor animals were traumatized, and freaked out whenever they saw him after that."_ _

___...Can you read my mind?_ _ _

__"Or that time when he tried to bake a cake for me, but ended up putting salt instead of sugar. I had to eat it all just to not upset him."_ _

___I'm glad you didn't tell me... **Yawn** ...I still fucking hate baking..._ _ _

__"The program is cancelled... If only Lord Diavolo let me change the timeline for one last time..." The butler muttered, then noticed the sleeping kitten in his arms. "Great, now I have fur all over me. You shed a lot... Might as well bring you to the vet and buy you a collar while we are here."_ _

___And that is how I became Sunday for real and realized I was reincarnated as a cat._ _ _

___I was very scared at first. Of course, learning that I was dead kind of freaked me out and made me sad. _  
 _I am horrible at explaining my emotions in with lengthy details like I am writing an English paper and desperately trying to reach the 1000 word mark. So you'll just have to settle with "I'm dead, but I am not that bothered since I am technically still alive in this cat body and I am relaxed that god, angels and demons actually exists so now I know what to expect when I die for the second time."___ _ _

_____Whatever. He brought me to the vet, got my first vaccine, and bought me an amber coloured collar with a gold plated name tag as a reward, since I stayed put the entire time. The name tag said Sunday on it, and had his phone number behind it. In case if I got lost... Wouldn't it gave away that he was my owner when he tried to hide me all the time? Oh well, I guess he didn't have a choice. Maybe he has a second phone and wrote that number on it. I don't know, I didn't look._ _ _ _ _

_____However, I do like how handsome I look with the collar. Thanks to the golden plate being in a bow-tie shape, I look like a true gentleman. He even bought two small top hats for me, one is black and the other one is in a dark blue colour. Oh, and a new bag of treats and a scratching board since I sharpened my claws with his bedsheets two days ago..._ _ _ _ _

_____He then teleported to his own room._   
_Why did you even use the portal if you can do that?_ _ _ _ _

____\---_ _ _ _

____"I will _not_ apologize to him." The fallen continued looking forward without batting an eye at the Prince, walking with fast and angry steps. The prince grabbed him by the arm and forced him to face him._ _ _ _

____"You _will_ , Lucifer. You cannot just slap someone in front of 8 people." The prince frowned, his eyes shining with the previous wrath he had when he first became aware of the death. "You are not the only one with a pride."_ _ _ _

____"Diavolo, he is obviously lying." The older protested, with his hands open to the prince to show his frustration. "You of all people must realize this. He knew what was going to happen but didn't do anything about it."_ _ _ _

____"Give me a solid reason why he would do that then."_ _ _ _

____"..." Lucifer seemed to fall silent, and the prince took this as a sign of defeat. Spinning on his heel, he started to walk again, leaving the fallen behind. "You can't. Because there is no reason." He spoke, a quiet irritation ruling over his voice._ _ _ _

____"There is a reason." These words made the prince turn back again and look at his loyal servant._ _ _ _

____"Please tell me."_ _ _ _

____"You gave up on the program." Lucifer's icy glare intimated him for a moment, though he would never admit it._ _ _ _

____"...Lucifer, that doesn't make any fucking sense."_ _ _ _

____"It does make sense. Did you really think I had no idea that you made Barbatos delete the timelines whenever Almo died?"_ _ _ _

____"...I had to. If I wanted this to be a success."_ _ _ _

____"Then why aren't you commanding him to do the same yet again!? Since your ultimate trump card is him!?" He raised his voice for the first time, echoing through the halls and shaking the reward display nearby, in one of the huge halls of RAD they stood in._ _ _ _

____"I don't want him to see the same person dying over and over again."_ _ _ _

____Lucifer resisted the urge to roll his eyes at this statement and spoke with sarcasm yet again. "He isn't a human, he's seen far worse things. What is the harm? It's not like he would be traumatized."_ _ _ _

____"Look, Almo's death has effected me as much as it did to all of you." Diavolo had a great amount of patience, and Lucifer could see that he was getting on his nerves. But his pride didn't allow him to back down. He was about to protest when Diavolo interrupted him. "But the outcome is always the same. He switched between more than 15 timelines already, and everyone is starting to feel like this is a waste of time and effort. So, I told Barbatos to not change the timeline again, and we decided to postpone this idea for another century."_ _ _ _

____"Diavolo, a _sixteen year old_ is dead because of your plan. He was fifteen only a year ago, attending a normal highschool and living a normal human life. You stole his future!"_ _ _ _

____The entire hall felt silent at these words, as if there was someone there that listened to them in the first place. Lucifer just admitted that he cared about the human enough to give a damn about the his life span, his dreams, his future. He cast away his pride and spoke his true feelings, and he felt great humiliation. Maybe it was due to the human's young age. Maybe, it was because Lucifer was used to his presence. Maybe he felt failure and guilt since he also destroyed the bond he had with his _own son_ \- _ _ _ _

____"You could've easily commanded Barbatos to go back one last time and make you cancel this plan, so we wouldn't have known him in the first place!" He said, continuing to blame the prince for the death that accured. He didn't even controlled what was coming out of his own mouth anymore. But could he care at that point? "Past me wouldn't have listened, Lucifer. Almo was deemed to die at 12th of April in Devildom. We cannot tamper with his life time." The prince still tried to reason with him,_ _ _ _

____"Does that excuse your actions then?"_ _ _ _

____"It doesn't, and I never said these were my excuses in the first place. This is merely the truth. You have to understand that tampering with time is something important and can't be meddled with for too long . Barbatos had abused his power enough-"_ _ _ _

____"Quit it, both of you."_ _ _ _

____"Oh... Barbatos."_ _ _ _

____Lucifer didn't say anything and looked down when he heard Barbatos' voice, not wanting to look at him after _that._ _ _ _ _

____"...We can talk about this once everyone calms down." The butler says, an uncertainty (and maybe guilt) could be seen through his clouded eyes. But he didn't let tha show on his face, posture or voice. Still stoic as ever, he joined his own hands on his back like he is hiding something. "Right now, your arguement is consisted of nothing but meaningless accusations. It is pretty counter-productive, if I say so myself."_ _ _ _

____"...Fine. Think whatever you want. I will be over at my office." Lucifer spat out and walked past both the prince, not bothering to look at the butler with a fading red mark on his face. The outline of his middle finger was still there, and it looked more like a stain at this point._ _ _ _

____"Lucifer..." The prince still tired to call out to him, but was stopped by the butler who grabbed his shoulder._ _ _ _

____"My lord." His voice was sharp and sounded commanding._ _ _ _

____"...Alright. I will head over to the Council Room." The prince sighed and let his extended hand fall on his side. "...You should take a day off as well, Barbatos."_ _ _ _

____"...Well then. If you would excuse me."_ _ _ _

____\---_ _ _ _


	4. Mess

"...What a drag..." 

_What's wrong? Is my bowtie ugly or something?_

"I have nothing to do, for once..." The butler sighed and let himself fall on his bed, next to his brown and white cat that looked like a brown cow. He was still in his formal wear from the funeral. A completely black suit with a grey ribbon attached to it. He put his hand on his chest and took it off, staring at it. "We are supposed to wear this thing for a month to mourn his death... But we don't even know where his soul is. Can you believe that?" He looked at the kitten, trying to find an answer in his eyes.

The kitten put his paws under his chest, getting into a loaf position but still flopping his tail ever so often. _I see. So that's what the ribbon was... I guess they use white for angels and black for demons. Or something, never been at a demon funeral before. Actually scratch that, I've never been at a funeral before._

"...Ever since you came in here, I feel like I'm talking more than necessary... This is so unlike me."

_It's because you think I don't understand you. You fucking idiot._

"I feel like I'm talking to myself, yet there is someone there listening to me."

_That's what happens when you get a cat._

"Can you understand me?" The butler gazed into the cat's eyes that resembled ambers under this lighting, blinking lazily. The butler's eyes seemed to be growing tired, the heaviness of the events that had transpired exhausted him. Normally, he would splash cold water on his face, continue his task and ignore the situation entirely. 

However, since his room was already organized, he was not hungry or thirsty, and he had a day off, he didn't have a reason to get up and do anything. He could deal with the cat's food-water bowl and litterbox, but he did those before he got outside. He could exercise, but he wasn't in the mood to do anything. For the first time in a long while, he felt pretty lazy.

"...Your eyes are the same as him." He said and ran his thumb agganist the curve of the cat's nose, causing the cat to close his eyes out of instinct. He smiled at the sight and rubbed that place, hearing a faint purr. "You purr a lot..." He got closer all of a sudden and put his arm around the cat, cuddling him. He put his nose on top of the cat's head and closed his eyes. His hand rested on the cat's side, he could feel the fast heartbeat under his palm. 

_H... Holy... You can't just get close like that! I- I have a personal space you now!_ He meowed in protest, but made no attempt to wiggle his way out or scratch him. It felt warm, and he quickly found himself relaxing under the butler's soft grip. It felt... nice. A warmth he hasn't felt in a long time. Memories of the cuddles he had with his own mother flashed before his mind, and made him close his eyes in sadness. He wanted to cry, but was incapable of it. He missed his family. His father, his mother... They only knew that their son was in a big school for an exchange program. Not that he was dead.

"...You really smell like the sun..." He heard Barbatos say, and felt soft breathing on his head. It felt weird but it wasn't necessarily bad. 

_I really don't know if I can live like a cat at this rate... I'm either going to have a fuzzy heart attack or die from sadness. Is that even possible? I guess._

The next day, the kitten was going to find the ribbon on Barbatos' chest placed neatly inside a box along with the suit he wore in the funeral.

\---

Am I truly responsible for his death, or could I really do nothing about it?

In every single timeline.  
In every single reality.  
He always died in the same date and same hour of the day. Just in different locations and different situations.

In one timeline, he was walking across a street and a car ran over him on purpose. His spine was damaged, his lungs were squashed under the vehicle, yet the car didn't stop. It dragged his body for 75 meters, leaving a huge trail of smudged blood behind. The witnesses said the driver was a white, tall demon man with a long tail and two horns.

In another one, his throat was sliced open from behind in one of the classrooms of RAD. Blood had splashed everywhere and it was also coming out of his mouth. He tried to reach for the door and crawled there in a panic, his face was stained with tears. He wanted to call for help. A few pieces of broken horns and rope burns on his wrists were found. Through I highly doubt he was tied with a rope, he was restrained in some way.

Yet another example; He was found in his room with a noose around his neck, and a suicide note. However, whoever made that setting failed miserably at covering a murder up as suicide. The handwriting did not belong to him and contained details that were not in his files. His fingers were bloody from trying to pull down the rope to breathe. However, some of the blood didn't belong to him. There was also a very large pair of scissors on the floor with wiped fingerprints. Whoever killed him must have waved the scissor around to mock him.

The other one out of the 15 timelines I chose, showed him getting poisoned from the tea he drank. He drank some of it and a few hours later, he felt nausea and excused himself from Diavolo's office. He ran towards the first bathroom and started to puke, but it wasn't stomach acid and the stuff he ate that day, it was straight up blood. He died while clutching the toilet seat for support. The other me has discovered his body.

Like Lucifer said, I've seen worse things in my lifetime.   
None of this should be enough to faze me.  
 _Should._

However, when I noticed the expression of the other me, something seemed off.  
Very, very off.  
It wasn't a troubled expression, as if this death didn't have any meaning other than the failure of the program.  
No, it was different.  
The other me should be aware that I am roaming around his timeline.   
He should be aware that I am looking through timelines to prevent Almo's death.  
Because he did the same. Just like me.  
Then why was he so shocked to find a dead body there? Why did he act like he cared about him on a personal level?  
Why did he look so...  
Traumatized?

I hate the smell of his blood.   
Normally, a soul as clean as his should attract a demon like me.   
He is just a normal kid, living a normal life with normal parents and a normal personality. He laughs at stupid, uncreative jokes, just like people in his age. He cries over trivial, unimportant things that he would laugh at when he got older. He talks way too much, but quickly shuts his mouth when he has to talk. 

I hate the stench that covers up the room whenever I see his head body in one of those realities.

Maybe he is also sick of seeing the same person die a brutal death, over and over again.  
It is painful.  
It is very painful.

However, I cannot let my emotions show through my actions.

Almo is dead now.  
I need to accept it and forget about him.

...

No, actually... 

He will live on as an important figure in Devildom history. I can predict that, at least a little.   
Every timeline is different, however, they all lead to the same place. Destruction and death. Rarely happiness. However, I can at least be hopeful that his name will not be forgotten by anyone anytime soon. He would hate to be forgotten.

"What is your deepest fear?"

"My fear? Hm... This is gonna sound pretty stupid to a demon, but my greatest fear is being forgotten a few years after I die. Or more like my biggest obstacle with living a healthy life."

"What do you mean?"

"In less than century, no one will remember I even existed, unless I do something very big regardless of it being inhumane or not. Like George Washington when it comes to politics, he literally has a city named after him. Or Hitler when it comes to fascism and overly romanticized ideas, along with a huge religious fanaticism... The difference is I don't have an opinion about George Washington and I fucking hate Hitler."

"Understandable."

"That said, of course I don't plan on committing a mass genocide just to get into history books. Or have people talk about me for generations, good or bad... It's just the way this world works. But being forgotten is still kind of scary. What is the point of being alive then?"

"You can't really ask a demon that question."

"Well, I think the point of being alive, when it comes to that, is to live your life freely since no one is going to remember you anyway. You can choose to waste it away, accomplish great things, or just be mediocre. No one will remember what you did... Hey, Barbatos."

"Yes?"

"Am I boring you?"

"No, it's kind of interesting to listen to you while I bake."

"You're the only one who listens to me like this, you know? Lucifer always gets mad at me for giving uncessessary details. And my own family always asks me to either not speak, or speak less... Everyone says I speak so much but say so little."

"...Is that why you have a hard time socializing with demons?"

"Maybe. Not too sure."

"Having others listen to you unfortunately requires respect and authority. However, if you find people who have the same interests as you, you can have a pretty good friend circle."

"So essentially, I need to find people that are similar to me?"

"That sums it up, yes."

"Heh, you just did the same as me."

"What do you mean? I never give unnecessary details."

"What you mean with your previous statement would be the same if you take the "Having others listen to you requires respect and authority." part away from it... I think."

"What can I say? A grape rots away by staring at another grape."

"Speaking of grapes, can I eat the-"

"No."

Little did he know, in just 25 years, his name will be on Devildom history books for the next generation to see.

For now, Diavolo does not want another death.  
I do not want another death.  
Diavolo gave up on the program for another century.  
I gave up on the program for another century.  
Mission is important.  
Diavolo's wish is my command.  
Mission is important.  
Diavolo's wish is my command...  
...Mission is important...

Diavolo's wish is...  
My command...

Once again, am I responsible for his death, or was there really nothing I could do about it?

\---

 _Hey. **One poke.**_

"..."

_Wake up. **Two pokes.**_

"Mgh..."

_I said wake up. **Three pokes.**_

"Mnng... Suwndae..."

_Don't you speak English? Dude, wake up. I'm hungry. **Four pokes.**_

"...If you peed on the window... again... I swear..." The butler said sluggishly, rolled on his back and rubbed his eyes, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He yawned, his head falling onto one side. He never had trouble waking up like this before, he woke up in an instant since he wasn't a heavy sleeper. "That was a strange dream..." He mumbled. However, waking up slowly with a pleasantly warm furball next to him made him feel like he was in heaven for a brief moment. He was planning on laying down more, if the _fucking cat didn't poke him like a dying bug that was about to take it's last breath under the paw of this creature._

Barbatos yawned again, but choked when the kitten put his paw deep inside his throat. Coughing and cringing at the feeling of fur inside his mouth, he stared at the kitten with half open and annoyed eyes once the kitten pulled his paw back. The way he looked at Barbatos seemed like as if the small thing was mocking him. And it made him angry. "You didn't have to shove your entire paw down my throat if you wanted something.

_Heh, Diavolo disliked that._

"...No treats for you for a week. Only food."

_HA!? WHAT!? THAT'S LIKE CHOCOLATE TO ME! YOU CAN'T JUST-_

"You heard me, dear Sunday. No treats. You're getting fat anyway."

"Mrrr..." _God fucking damn it..._

"There is nothing wrong with being a bit chubby, but I want you to be fit and healthy."

_We all bodyshaming animals now?_

The butler pulled himself up and stretched, earning a few pops from his back and groaning as he did so. He didn't took his shoes off when he fell asleep on the bed, and he felt very hot in his suit. It wasn't exactly like he was sweating bullets inside it. More like he was _going to_ do that at this rate. He quickly took off his jacket and felt his arms getting cold. He really hated the feeling. 

He got up and hanged the coat somewhere else, quickly washed his face inside his bathroom, changed the water and the food of the kitten, and decided to take a bath after staring at the clock. It was 5:32 PM, he spent most of the day sleeping.

_Are you gonna come out butt-ass naked again...? Not that I mind too much since we're both guys here, but come on man._

"...I'm off to the bath then." He meekly said and earned a meow from the kitten, and closed the door behind him.

_...You know, I've been here for a while and I never looked around like a creepy stalker. Should I sneak around...?_

_He usually showers in 10 minutes. However, when he uses the bath, if he has the time of course, he stays there for half an hour. I mean, the entire point of a bath is to soak in it like a sad sponge. So that should give me 20 minutes at bare minimum... Would it really hurt to have a peak around the room? A little glance ain't hurt nobody..._

_Let's start from under his bed. Maybe he hides some german dungeon porn magazines there like me... Wait, I left all of them under my bed in the human world... Fuck. Well, I guess a pretty pleasant surprise is awaiting my parents._ The kitten exhaled deeply and went under the covers of Barbatos' bed, searching for some juicy material in there. He found a big, fully black box and took it out with the help of his teeth and paws. It was heavy, so he wondered what was there.

He used his paws to open the box quietly, trying to see the contents inside it. After taking one glance, the kitten scrunched his nose in disgust and closed the box, sliding it right back in.

_Yep. Just as I expected. Metal handcuffs and whips. What is this, a torture chamber?_

The kitten looked underneath the bed again and pulled out a lighter box this time. Being a cat with a human mind, he was able to figure out how to open and move boxes. It just felt like he was an infant with short arms and legs. Oh, and not having any fingers was very hard.

_Let's see what's in this one..._

The box was a dark green one, kind of like his hair. The inside of it had a soft filling and a silk sheet sewn over it to cover the filling up. It felt smooth to the touch. So smooth that Almo wondered if he could take a nap in it.

The box had a pretty, silk white and cream coloured, neatly yet somehow cutely decorated suit inside it. It was burnt and yellow on some places, showing that it had seen better days. It looked to be a pair of pajamas, though he wasn't sure of it very much. He ran one brown paw over it, his soft and pink toe beans grazing over the soft material. He smiled, as much as a cat can do. He wondered who this belonged to, it could be Barbatos' old clothes, or maybe Diavolo's childhood clothing. But why would he keep it? Maybe there was a meaningful story behind it? Or maybe he just kept it because he forgot to get rid of it. 

He looked around a bit more, knocked a few things over such as the pen on Barbatos' desk for fun, looked around in his bookshelf and dropped a few albums on purpose to look through them, and but found nothing intresting.

"...Hm, so you like snooping around?"

He turned towards the noise in panic and stared at him, but found no one there. Instead, it was a very cute cat.  
By the window.

\---


	5. Wall

"...Who are y-" The kitten quickly closes his mouth with his paws, not believing that he could, in fact, talk. His voice was the same as ever, it made him feel weird. After not hearing his own voice for so long, he started to forget his own voice and felt very bad about it. 

"My name is Stray. Yours?"

_Hi, future me here._  
_Let me introduce this important character real quick~_  
_Stray was also a male kitten, but he had very light grey fur on him. His mouth and stomach was white, and he was very fluffy. His ears and nose were small, but he was definetly older. Maybe by a week or two. He had very weird eyes, sometimes it was half blue-half yellow, and sometimes it was brown and yellow. Whatever it was, I kinda liked them._

_I don't really know much about him, unfortunately. He never gave me any important personal details. But he is very knowledgeable of the cat world, as well as Devildom. Oh, and he has a weird, black collar around his neck. It's shiny and has white dots on them, like stars. The collar is tied with a golden chain... Man, I'm so jealous._

_Other than that, as the name suggests, he is a stray cat. He probably couldn't get rid of the collar since... Well, he has paws. Not fingers. And Of course, I knew it was a fake name... He speaks with a slight Israeli accent. Not sure why. I didn't know cats had accents./i > "...My name is Sunday." The kitten said. The name sounded oddly foreigner to him._

"No, not that." Stray shook his head and sat down on the window, getting into the classic loaf position until none of his limbs could be seen anymore. "Your real name." 

"Real name?" He asked with a confused, uneased face and also sat down, his ears twitching at the sudden coldness of the room coming from the open window. Spring wind usually felt nice, but now his whiskers and fur just felt cold. Spring wind... 

Speaking of the devil, he could smell a lot of things in the spring wind. Barbatos' room was very close to the Royal Kitchen and the supply room. So, when the wind blew in the room in the evening or the early morning, he could always smell the different types of dishes being prepared. Meat always made his mouth water, however mint made him want to gag. Lemon made him close his eyes and back away in disgust, and milk made him thirsty. 

He licked his lips when he caught the wiff of chicken on the air, but blinked a few times when he realized he 2as getting distracted. He thought about the answer to Stray's question for a while. "...What was your name before your demon took you in?" Stray decides to help the forgetful kitten out by expanding his question, flopping his tail from one side to the other. 

"A... Almo. I think." He spoke with hesitation.  
Just...  
What was happening to his brain? "A-anyway, why can I talk? I couldn't before!" 

"That's because you are talking to another cat. Demons can't understand you, so you don't feel the need to speak. To them, you are still meowing... You might want to keep your voice down a bit. The demon will get out of the shower soon." 

__The water did really stop... AAAH! HOW AM I GOING GO CLEAN THIS MESS UP!?_ _

"Don't ever forget your name, or you'll be a cat forever! I'll come again to talk to you more. You seem intresting!" Stray said in a sing-song voice, and hopped down from the window. Barbatos opened his door at that moment, and his eyes widened at the mess he had in his room. Looking left and right, he slowly frowned and stared at the kitten, who had been hiding underneath the rug as if it was going to do anything. 

"...No wet food for a week. You will eat dry food instead." 

_"MEOOOOOOOW!" _FUCK!__

_\---_

A month had passed before another weird event happened again. During this time, Stray and the kitten became very close friends. Stray would visit him at least once a week and talk with him about how cats could travel any of the realms without trouble, the things he learned in the streets. Sometimes, Almo was the one to do the talking. He talked about his past, his family, how his relationship with his demon was... It was fun. To have a friend to talk to. Their conversations always ended with the same warning: "Don't forget your name, or you will be a cat forever." 

Almo wondered how Stray even knew that he was originally a human. When he asked about it, Stray smiled and said; "It's obvious you're not a cat. You never groom yourself. You always ask about the world of cats. You never go out and hunt down snakes or flies. Your hunting instincts are basically nonexistent... And most importantly, you don't desire freedom. No cat acts like that." 

With time, he started to feel suffocated in the room, and started to go out. Barbatos occasionally let him take strolls outside, that's why he left the window open most of the time. He didn't have to worry about thieves, the magic barrier on his windows and door allowed only certain people inside, same for animals. Think of the talking moon crow for example. Since the animal could talk, he used him as a messenger pigeon for Diavolo. The crow he had was named Sylvester, and he was an asshole. Whoever thought him the word "Fuck You" was both a genius and so stupid at the same time. 

Anyway. Almo was allowed to go out during the busiest hours of the day. Since no one paid attention to him. And Barbatos didn't want him to feel lonely. Little did Almo know, his memories of the House of Lamentation was slowly dissappearing. He remembered the name and how it looked like. However, he didn't remember where it was. Or the purgatory hall... Were the angels even in here anymore? 

After checking himself on the mirror and adjusting the golden plate of his collar, he softly jumped out of window. His movements were always timid and soft, he loved jumping ay3 little on the air whenever he speed. He streched and looked at the navy blue,ryere purple and pink sky. Following the smell of the food in the air, he went to the kitchen, skipping on top of the walls that surrounded the castle. His shadow looked so large on the red stone path inside the huge castle. It made him smile, he was so small compared to literally everyone and everything in his past life. 

Finally, he reached to the huge windows that opened to the kitchen, the center of the land of beautiful smells in Devildom. He stared into the kitchen quietly and watched the servants work in a hurry. Nothing had changed in this part of the castle. It was always busy, lively, covered in different scents and sizzling sounds. Steam sometimes came out of the different pots, weird soups and vegetables were inside each pot. 

He sat down and watched the scenery for a while in fondness. Watching other people work fastly in unison relaxed him, it was a good scene. He saw his owner there (it still felt very weird to call Barbatos that), he was running from one pot to the other, giving orders to the servants. He took four plates into his hands, full of perfectly decorated sweets and foods. He started to run from the crowded kitchen to put them to the big table where they were all put in, to be taken by the maids and put onto the table in the main hall. 

He never lost balance once when he had to squint his way through the crowd of servants, going behind or between them, excusing himself while still having the plates in perfect condition. He heard that Barbatos' trainer ( _ **"I didn't come out of my mother's womb with knowledge on how to be a successful, yet still humble butler, lady Almo."** was what he said. That cheeky fucker_...) threw balls or cushions at him while he walked around with plates and fragile glasses on a silver tray. Definetly sounds easy, but this thought the poor butler to be alert all the time. At least he had great balance... 

He smiled at how diligent and careful he was. He overheard him mentioning something about a dinner with the brothers, important politicians from the Celestial Realm, Lord Diavolo, and some other people from his court that weren't worth mentioning. That was the reason to this whole rush. They locked eyes for a moment, and Almo could swear that he saw him wink at his direction. 

**He looks very familiar from here... Where have I seen a look like that before?**

_Oh, he noticed me. I should probably say something..._

"Meow!" Good luck!

A few other demons looked at his way, but as if he was never there, Almo had jumped off from the wall, to the other side, and started walking.

~~"How many times have I told you to not sit there? Shall I report you to Diavolo?"~~

~~"Why? It's nice and cool in here. I can also see you work."~~

~~"You look like a stalker."~~

~~"Well, at least I am here because I want to admire your beauty- OW! OW- OW! Where did you get that tazer!? Jesus, I wasn't being serious! ...Oofff, my leg... Tsk..."~~

~~"Get off from there. The female workers are uncomfortable."~~

~~"Well, my eye isn't on them... It's on someone else. Someone that just tazed me with a thing that looks like a flashlight."~~

He walked.  
And walked.  
And walked.  
Through the soft and warm earth, with pebbles, dust, puddles of water, asphalt, stone, or grass underneath his paws. Through the merchants, old people, young part time workers, street singers, restaurant workers, rich women, beggar men, happy children, crying adults, big dogs, tired 9-5 workers. Inside the metro station, outside the mall... 

Everyone seemed the same as usual, except they were taller. Everyone was the same, but he was not in this world anymore. He was gone, as if he never existed. There were no traces of his artwork, which were previously displayed as posters all around. The photographs he had in the Hell's Kitchen were gone, it was a photo of him and Beel. They beat the Spicy Bomb challenge together and managed to get a 1 year free meal ticket as a price. The corner he had with Satan and a few of his other friends, in which they played and somgs together to raise money for the local animal shelter, was now occupied by someone else.

The city continued to live on. Without him.

And finally, after passing by a huge forest and staining the white parts of his fur into a light brown colour, he arrived.  
To the place he missed so much.  
Maybe looking at the people be once knew could refresh his memory.  
_Is this because I am a cat now... I am not supposed to remember my human life?_

"Cerberus! ...Cerberus! Where are you!?" The deep voice he detested hearing in that tone called out, making him look freeze with excitement. _Lucifer? Where is he?_ He looked around and around, running in different directions and trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. However, the voice kept changing directions. It sounded closer for a moment and then went away, it was on right for a moment, then it was on his left.

He looked up and screamed with all his might, feeling his tail puffing out and his ears folding back agganist his head. "Mrraaaaw!" _Lucifeeeer!_

...

"Mraaw?" _Lucifer?_

...

"Mraw..." _Lucifer..._

_...What am I even doing? He won't understand me like this anyway. I should just give u-_

"CERBERUS I SWEAR TO EVERYTHING THAT IS UNHOLY, IF YOU ATE THE NEIGHBOURS CAT THIS TIME, I WILL FUCKING ■■■ YOU AND ■■■ YOUR ■■■ WITH MY HEEL AFTER ■■■ YOUR DISOBEDIENT ASS. COME OUT. NOW-" 

A huge tumbling, rustling sound, a yelp, and then a curse could be heard from the trees nearby.

_..._  
_Damn._

Low whimpers and muffled cries came out from a bush nearby, and a huge, dark figure walked past him. So huge, that he thought it was a giant for a second. However, instead of showing it's strength with pride just like his master, it lowered his heads eith a small amount of drool coming out of it's mouth, sulking while he walked away. Lucifer had landed on the floor with a thud, he obviously hurt his feet during the rough landing. Though his pained face was quickly gone, he started to pull the tree branches and dust out if his magnificent wings.

 _Hahaha! That was priceless!_ Almo thought and ran to the demon's side.

"...Great. Now I have to groom my wings again... Oh?" He looked down when he felt something hitting agganist his foot, and then clinging onto his pants with small, pointy things. None other than our dear Almo. But Lucifer doesn't know that. First, a surprise took over Lucifer's face. Still keeping one hand on Cerberus' head, he stared at the kitten and waited for it to go away. But when the kitten showed no signs of letting go, he reached downwards and pulled the kitten by it's nape with his fingers as gently as possible. 

"...What do you want?" His eyes burned and sparked fire to everywhere underneath the moonlight that reached to the ground through the dried out trees. His horns, still thick, shiny and and tightly stuck to his skull as always, stared at him with their sharp tips. His wings were fluttering due to the ticklish feeling of small branches and leaves stuck go them, and it gave him a somewhat goofy look. But it didn't put his beauty any less.

 _Holy shit, those horns are almost as tall as me! ...Ow, okay, your fingers kinda hurt. Please put me down._ The kitten couldn't meow due to the position, so it just stared back at him with big, beady, almond eyes.

Lucifer put it down after a while, but the kitten crawled on his pants again, climbing all the way to his waistcoat this time. Lucifer flinched at the sudden movement and tried to get it away with an angry look, but this kitten was determined to get on him. "What do you want? I don't have any food with m-" "Grrr, ruff!" "Cerberus no. This is not food- God damn it, get off! You're going to cover my clothes with white fur!"

"Meow!" _No! I wanna see the brothers!_

"Are you defying me? I told you to get off."

"Meow." _No._

"I can destroy you with a single flame."

"Mraw." 

"You will die in here."

"Mrraw." _I kinda did already._

"You little..."

"That't not the appropriate way to approach to a kitten, Lucifer. Think of them as girls." A man approached Lucifer, and Almo immedietly knew who it was when he recognized those disgusting teal pants, and that blonde hair. The shining moonlight reflected on his hair really nicely, and fell on his smooth, spotless cheeks, gave him a very soft look. A small, mocking smile on his face turned into a soft one when he met eyes with the curious kitten, who was still holding onto Lucifer's waist with it's claws. He was holding a can of wet food, and some water in a small, paper cup. 

_FOOD!! ...Wait, did this dude just call me a girl? Oh whatever, I don't really care._

"If you're so knowledgable on cats, get thing thing off of me and bring me a lint roller." Lucifer huffed in an annoyed tone and pulled the kitten away, putting it on the ground for the second time. He then backed away and continued to deal with his darling wings, and Pulled Cerberus from it's leash to stay away. 

As much as he despised Satan's unreasonable (not really, Lucifer knew he was an asshole towards the blonde) sarcasm and attitude towards him, he didn't want Cerberus to try and eat him. The dog was clearly hungry, and food awaited him back at home, at the underground tomb. As for the cat, he couldn't be bothered with cleaning and burying it's corpse. Plus he wasn't a piece of shit that would harm a cat for no reason.

"You took quite the tumble when you dived into the forest, when you spotted Cerberus. Did you forget how to fly?"

"The wind started to blow to the side all of a sudden and I ended up losing balance. That's all."

"Sure." Satan mocked quietly and put the water down, then opened the can of wet food and set it in front of the kitten. Almo sniffed the food for a while, and felt his hunger rushing in his brain. He basically threw himself on the can, his paw accidentally went inside the can in the process. The blonde demon made a happy, amused "Hmph" sound, contrary to how it's used usually. "If I knew you were this hungry, I would've brought more food."

"Before you get any ideas, we are not taking the cat in. He has an owner." Lucifer stood beside the younger with his arms crossed, he had changed back to his human form.

"Did you called them?"

"No."

"...We will keep him for a while then."

"No we will not. You are not on the charge of the house rules."

"An ass with four wings and two eyes won't tell me what to do, unfortunately."

"Excuse me? What did you just call me?"

And that's how Almo stayed over at the House of Lamentation.  
And gave Barbatos The Cat Dad™️ a very _unpleasant feeling_ deep in his heart, when he came to an empty room in the middle of the night.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mostly listened to Cranberry and Pancake (Kenshi Yonezu), Stand By Me (Yoh Kamiyama) and Sokkenai (RADWIMPS) while writing this. 1st song for my own general vibe for this fic, second for the cute and goofy scenes, and the last for the scene where Almo watches Barbatos from afar on the wall.


	6. Astray

**...I feel suffocated in here.**

The food service was done, the tables were cleaned, and the cigarettes were slowly being lit. The classic white ones, thicker, cheeros, tobacco pipes, so on so forth. A heavy cloud of smoke covered the room.  
Barnatos stood close to the table with a few papers in his hands. After he checked and made sure the food was perfect and the ciggarettes were ready, he decided to take a small break while everyone talked. He should've probably listened, but he wasn't intrested in one of the angels' wife cheating on him. Or one of the lower class politician demon's anger management issues and the ways he disciplined his daughter.

The great hall was filled with quiet whispers and anxious looks, as a flock of high ranking angels stood alongside Archangel Michael, and his five brothers, with Azrael being absent. They all stood at the opposite side if the table, in front of the demon brothers and other demons. Diavolo and Michael, who sat at the opposite ends of the table, gazed into each other with intensity. There were no hard feelings between them. However, the others didn't seem to understand that. Most Angels and Demons hid a small weapon with them somewhere in their clothes. Underneath their boots, their belts, under their sleeves... Some even stuffed things thar could be used ss weapons inside their wings.

There was an unreasonable amount of tension in the room, and a certain angel who did NOT want to participate in this meeting thought all of this was stupid. Not because Almo's death isn't worth investigating, no. But because Simeon already knew Almo wans't dead. He was somewhere out there. He knew... Of course, Barbatos could see his frustration with ease. Sighing, the angel began listening more attentively when Diavolo started to speak about the main topic of tonight's dinner. After the main course was done, it was time to talk about the investigation. Belphegor also "came back" after the exchange was cut short. But there was something very off about him.

Very, very off.

He looked calm and unbothered about the whole thing. So much that it was concerning. However, Simeon could understand the reason. Belphegor didn't spend time with Almo, he didn't even know him. So, it would be normal for him to simply not care. It was known that Belphegor detested humans for what happened. But is it wise for him to hate an entire species full of 8.5 BILLION members? 

Almo didn't even know their 8th sister existed until a short while before his death, when Beelzebub told him. He had no fault in this. So you would _at least_ try and appear like you care for your grieving brothers. Right?

Nope. Not a chance.  
It angered Simeon.

Diavolo began after clapping his hands together to gather everyone's attention. "As you may know, one of our exchange students have unfortunately died as the result of an assassination. However, I am saying the "died" part very loosely. As we have not seen the angel of death in our grounds yet, nor his records are in anywhere in the Devildom or Celestial Realm."

"That is why we request the assistance of the Celestial Realm government throughout our investigation and listen to what we gathered up until now, right on this table." Lucifer continued with crossed arms and a flat expression. His wings fluttered as he spoke, either from anxiety, or annoyance. For god knows why. Lucifer was angry all the time.

Everyone looked at Michael, who's been eyeing the files on the table up until now. Michael was calm as always, crossing his legs and clasping his hands together on his knee. His white robes and four wings that radiated a powerful holy glow caused some demons to hiss and some to rub their eyes. Diavolo even had to close his eyes for a moment to adjust to the light. The darkness that spread from demons, on the other hand, caused angels to hiss quietly and hug themselves from the coldness it had. A frostbite formed on their fingertips.

Simeon was used to this situation. For some reason, even though the two species were basically the same fucking ones except from the colour of their wings and halos-horns, they were always the rival of each other. And they never get tired. He played with the sleeve of his robe and felt the golden plates on them, wiping some of the dust off of them. Michael slowly nodded while he did that, and a small presentation was reflected on the board in front of them. 

Simeon lifted his head up and almost jumped backwards when first slide of the presentation opened with a dead body and several other pictures of them up close. "...I apologize for starting it off with countless pictures of a dead body." Diavolo spoke, though he definetly didn't seem apologetic. Several angels gasped and other stayed in stunned silence, while some demons expressed their disgust at the bloody mess. 

**Hm, first time?**

"It's quiet alright. I didn't expect everything to be this... gorey. But it's nothing everyone in this room is not used to." Michael frowned as he stared at the crime scene photos one by one, thinking and wondering who could've done this in cold blood. His question was left unanswered, but at least he did get some details.

"Almo Armbrecht, our second human exchange student. He is a 16 year old boy, his past isn't too unusual and he possesses little magical power. People of Celestial Realm and Devildom got fo know about him due to our program." Lucifer got up and walked to the board, with Almo's now-unlocked phone. 

**Poor boy.**

"His Devilgram page is currently deleted thanks to a certain brother of mine," he stared deep into Leviathan's soul while he said so. "however, Devilgram doesn't let accounts get deleted that easily. We found a way to get the account back with all the photographs and messages, and looked through them all. We found interesting messages from a few demons he had a disagreement with, he engaged in a violent fight with them several times before, during class or after school."

"So he already gained reputation as a troublesome student?" One of Michael's younger brothers, Uriel, asked and made small notes on the notepad he brought with him.

"Unfortunately. But he never argued with any of us like that..." Beelzebub's hesitant voice made it's way to the room, an obvious regret and sadness coming over him. Beelzebub still couldn't get over his death.

"Death and rape threats, slurs, photos of dead animals, rape videos, videos of child abuse in every way... Seems like they did everything they could to bother him and trigger him in some way. I had to watch every single video and look at every photo for the investigation..." Diavolo's face scrunched when he recalled the screams he heard and the bloody photos he saw. He was used to them but it didn't made the situation any better. He hated unnecessary blood shed. "So, we interrogated every single person and found nothing. Though some of them did admit to harm him in some way and got punished accordingly, we got stuck with potential suspects. So, we looked through security camera footage. That's where Barbatos comes in." 

**...Don't put me on the spotlight like that.**

Barbatos walked towards the board and opened a video titled "Important Evidence #1 ; Murder" an pressed the play button quietly. It was a footage that showed most things but the killer's face. Since there wasn't any sound to it, Barbatos had to explain what was happening.

"I reviewed 49 different cameras for 24 hours. 8 of them showed where he went out from and where he headed to, one of them showed the murder. However, we cannot see Mr. Armbrecht for half of the footage, and we can only see the backside of the killer, and his horns for fifteen seconds. We see that there is obvious struggle between the two afterwards."

**The killer grabbed Mr. Armbrecht from his arm and pulled him inside the back alley, then his tail moved towards Almo's face, but we cannot see what he was doing. He was probably trying to use it to cover his mouth while he used his arms to keep him from running. Almo tried to flee by elbowing the killer's nose, the killer stumbled back a little so he used that opportunity. This was all in vain however, the killer caught him by his leg with his tail and broke it after twisting it.**

**The struggle continued, the killer got on top of Almo. He kicked the killer with his heel and this only provoked the killer to continue his torture. We cannot see exactly what's going on around these parts, but judging from how he screamed about his hand, we can safely assume that his hands were chopped up from here.**

Barbatos continued to highlight the important details in the video. "The killer strangled him to death, and cut his chest open. He broke his ribs and reached for his heart. He was then spotted by a few witnesses, he panicked and threw the heart in his hands on the sidewalk, and fled."

"Then who are these witnesses?" Simeon asked the second most wondered question, his face was noticeably pale and his voice quivering. That video was just... blood curdling. Almo seemed to be struggling with all the will power he had, and once he grew tired of fighting back and felt the hands around his throat, he gave up. Hopelessness took over his body. He let out a few, pathetic hics that never made their way to his lungs and his arms fell limp. 

"...The owners of the pub at the other side of the street." Satan notified, already throbbing with rage after seeing that video. His face was straight, but his hands were gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly, and his breathing was heavy. A dark, green aura surroundered him, and his eyes shined bright with pure fury. He swallowed to keep his voice steady, noticing that he freaked out some angels and demons. The last thing he wanted was a lecture from Lucifer about how rude he was. "I interrogated them as well. However, the killer's face is still unknown and the only physical traits I got was that "He had a long tail, weird horns, and he wore mostly grey clothing"... Let's just say there is a huge hole in the interrogation room wall that is being fixed at the moment."

"Since I know all of you are smart enough to check the CCTV acording to this rather vague expression, I am guessing you couldn't find anything." Raphael spoke up this time, emotionless as ever that oddly annoyed Barbatos. Maybe he was just getting bored at how things progressed slowly.

**Am _I_ getting annoyed at someone for being straight faced?**

"Correct." Diavolo didn't seem to mind the sarcastic tone of the messenger angel, but he still frowned. "And I want to find the culprit as soon as possible."

"How about his soul!?" Simeon stood up violently, causing his chair to fall on the floor with a huge thud. His eyes were wide open with anger, as he gripped onto the table to keep it inside. Confidence built up in him all of a sudden as he stared at Diavolo. "Lord Diavolo, this is the last time you'll be hearing me say this. Almo isn't dead. You cannot count someone, who's soul is missing, as dead quite easily like that! His soul is still somewhere, we need to find it. Or he won't even be able to get to Celestial Realm, or Devildom and will perish!"

"Simeon. As much as I understand where you are coming from, detecting a missing soul isn't that easy."

"How about the pacts he had with Mammon and Leviathan? Did they get the piece of his soul?"

"N-no... I didn't. Did you, Mammon?" Leviathan asked anxiously, turning his head to the greedy demon who's been quiet and haven't engaged in trouble ever since the funeral, much to Lucifer's shock. Mammon sat silently on his seat, just lowering his head and whapping his wings a little. He hated talking about Almo already, it just... hurt him. "I didn't as well."

"That's exactly what my point is, he is not dead!" Simeon said again, and stared expectantly at Diavolo. His eyes met with Barbatos' for a second, and he found himself looking at the demon for real this time. The emotion he had was clear; Skepticism. Suspicion. Towards Diavolo and Barbatos, who might've taken a part in this whole ordeal.

**He wants to ask if I have something to do with it, but he can't. Not in front of all these angels... What a shame-**

"I don't understand. Why are you so willing to find this mystery demon, but not Almo? Is it simply more convenient to punish then to try and solve everything? I..." He paused, swallowing the lump on his aching and tight throat. He wasn't going to cry in here, not out of anger and in front of 20+ other people. But it was just so frustrating to see that no one even tried to understand his point. It was a basic thing they teach you at demon or angel schools.

"I think Simeon is talking about the "Reincarnation - 2; Planting Souls" section of the "Philosophy and Principles of Azrael" encyclopedia. The book is pretty old, it's still being used in schools. There should be a lot of copies in the library." Belphegor speaks up for the first time ever throughout the whole thing, catching everyone's eyes. He gives a small smirk in exchange. "I believe it went something like this; Sometimes, The Angel of Death grants the wish of a human, if he believes that they are worthy enough. He takes their soul and before it can pass on to the other realms, he puts it back inside another living being, essentially reincarnating them. If the human forgets all of their memories from their past life, and more specifically their old name, their soul disappears without the body realizing it."

"So the true death happens then." Gabriel commented and sighed depressivey, crossing his arms and throwing one leg above the other to find a comfortable posture. He was deep in thought while Raphael just rolled his eyes, and looked away. "True death is one and only in my eyes, dear brother."

**What does he mean? By that?**

"When the soul leaves the body."

**...You're mistaken.**

"It's a mere procedure that holds too much space in a human's heart."

~~_...It isn't. Right, Barbatos?_ ~~

"You do not put too much thought in it because you are an angel, Raphael." Barbatos opened his mouth without thinking, when he heard the deceased's voice. Strange. Last time he checked, he wasn't a spirit medium. But when everyone's eyes fell on him, he knew it was tol late to shut up now. "You are immortal, and you know what awaits someone once they are dead. However, most humans are still skeptical about the nature of Father, and if he exists at all. Due to their own surroundings and the events that happen to them. They can't speak to Father by nature so that is understandable, but when was the last time Father spoke to you?" 

~~"I don't wanna offend anyone, but sometimes I wonder if God created the first couple of humans and the fucked off to the rest of eternity."~~

~~"What makes you say that?"~~

~~"You know how we can't speak to god, right? I wonder if all the magical messages that we encounter time to time are mere coincidences. Or if such thing called as fate exists at all. If... If we are doomed to die, then... I try to keep these thoughts out of my head. But I just start feeling like it's all in vain. God is not there to listen to us."~~

"Barbatos, you can stop now."

"My lord, I'm afraid I cannot. Death is not something to be taken lightly, even if you think that it is an overly exaggerated concept. Mr. Armbrecht mattered to Devildom, and I would understand if you feel differently. **Humans are tiny creatures thst are below you, despite of your whole religion revolving around them.** "

"Barbatos." The warning in Diavolo's tone finally screws Barbatos' mouth shut, and the whole room falls into silence. Shocked looks have been exchanged, and Raphael's face was redder than a tomato. It wasn't clear if it was from embarassment, or fury, but the chuckle of Belphegor breaks the silence in the room. Lucifer's face turned from shocked to angry when he heard his voice, and he put a hand over his forehead in defeat.

Simeon, on the other hand, stayed put in shock. Barbatos wasn't the type to speak his mind, no matter what, unless he was asked about it. What came over him all of a sudden? He catched how his eyes widened before he began speaking, as if he heard something shocking he recovered just as fast. He must have realized something.

"...An intresting perspective of things. Can't say I disagree either." Michael smiled and put his chin on his enterrwined fingers. "Death is a complex thing and only father will ever know it's true meaning. As for Azrael... We haven't seen him around as well. He was ordered to bring Mr. Armbrecth's soul to the Celestial Realm, but he never arrived. It may be the case, as Mr. Belphegor over here spoke about it with it's basics..." He closed his perfectly blue eyes shut and began thinking, but opened one of them after a small silence to stare at the angry angel. "Simeon, wait for me in the entrance after we're done." 

"O... Of course, Michael." Simeon said quietly and pulled his seat back, before sitting on it and looking down in his hands in shame.

"If this little show of disagreement is over, may we continue?" Diavolo spoke with a relaxed posture, glad that it is finally over. "What is your desicion again, Michael?"

"We will help with the investigation, of course."

"Wh- Michael!" Raphael protested, but he was silenced with a pinch on his thigh from his older brother, Jophiel.

"It is official then. Celestial Realm will use a portion of it's resources, to help Devildom with the investigation of this horrific murder."

\---

After a long lecture from Lucifer as if he had the fucking right to sau anything, a couple "I am very disappointed in you"s and "what has gotten into you"s from Diavolo, mocking words and statements from butlers and maids he dealt with, Barbatos was finally free to go back to home. Well, more like room. As punishment for risking the deal between the two realms, 50% of his salary was cut off. 

It may seem like a light punishment, but Barbatos bought everything he (and the cat) ate and wore himself, along with hygene products. Those things are expensive. He also had to pay some stuff back to the bank with it's interest fees, a loan he had to take around 25 years ago and completely forgot about. Mix that with overly expensive taxes that had been a problem for Devildom economy ever since the 1600's, and you have yourself a Barbatos that is waist length sinked in shit.

Sighing with regret and anger, he unlocked his door and closed it behind himself. On days like this, when he felt like pure shit and felt like dying, he would normally take a boiling hot shower and go to sleep right after. However, since he technically was the owner of a cat... _Is it really a bad idea to hug it until he had a few slashes on his hands?_ Probably. Sunday liked cuddling, but he also sticked his entire paw in someone's mouth when he got annoyed. 

He wasn't a clingy person. If he wanted something to hug to, he could use the demon plushie he confiscated from a bratty servant kid 50 years ago, instead of going with the expensive option, which was owning a cat. Also there was no guarantee that the cat would actually let itself get pet. It could act all sweet one minute and then become a death machine.

Oh well, Sunday was better than nothing. Barbatos could just look at him doing literally anything and smile. Cats were beautiful creatures. He turned on his lights and looked around after wincing a little at the sudden brightness, his eyes were pretty sensitive to bright lights. He remembered having bat wings when he was a little child, but he doesn't remember what happened to them. 

Maybe they just fell off as he continued to mature, maybe he lost them at an accident, he doesn't remember. But he does know it has something to do with Diavolo's grandfather. Around the time he came in here as a child to work for his family. Speaking of, he still doesn't know what happened to his family. He stopped sending them money 1200 years ago, and they never responded, sent a letter, or anything in general. So, he never sent money there again.

His mind was thinking about anything but his money problems now. Because frankly, he was just sick of this shit and was too tired to care.

"Sunday." He called out, but got no response.

"...Sunday?" He called out again, but the room was as empty as ever.

"...Sunday." Less enthusiasm this time.

He noticed something small by the window and got closer at it. He stared at the object, which happened to be some grey and brown cat fur. 

**Did...**  
**Fuck, did Sunday go outside and hasn't come back yet? What if he fought with another cat? Why wasn't he back yet? Did a car hit him? Did he eat something bad and got sick? Did he got territorial and decided to protect his land? Wait, is he even neutered?**

"...He... He still has a ballsack!" He realized in terror and quickly covered his mouth when he said that out loud, sighing in frustration. He had to go out and look for him. But cats are aware of their surroundings, right? So, he should be back ny tomorrow.

...Right?

"Oh god damn it..." He mumbled before taking out his cloak he forgot to out on this evening, and went outside after turning off his lights and locking the door. He was going to find this cat and give it a good spanking. (Not really.)


	7. Venus

Sitting inside of the house of lamentation all alone was certainly far more convenient and comfortable than staying inside Barbatos' cramped bedroom. But it lacked something.

 _..._  
 _...I feel like I have something that's mine in here, but it's missing. I wonder what it is._ He thought and stretched himself. He was laying down in Satan's bed since Lucifer threatened to end his existence in all three realms if his fur got anywhere but Satan's room, but he wasn't here. So fuck that rule, he was going to explore around these familiar halls. He yawned and looked around the dark room for a while. How did Satan even read in a dark room like this? Was it for the aesthetic or something? If so, how are his eyes in perfect condition?

Paying no attention to the possible myopia Satan might have, he jumped and pulled the doorknob downwards, successfully opening the door. Puffing up his chest in pride, he smiled. _Even though I am shorter than a two tiered lunch box, I can still get stuff done!_ He used his face to pry open the door and went through the small crack in the door, cringing at how his whiskers touched the wooden door frame. And then, he was met with the darkness.

That's when he discovered something cool. 

He totally forgot that cats had night vision. How did he even forget about that- _Oh wait, Barbatos rarely ever turned off his lights. Of course._

Blinking a few times, he let himself adjust to the light and quickly sprinted through the halls. The portraits looked like a bunch of scary adults, staring down at him with a mix of pity and annoyance in their eyes. He felt oddly threatened by their presence, and felt himself hissing quietly. He then realized what he was doing and shook his head in disbelief, what was he doing, acting like a real cat?

...

Oh.

"How did you end up here?" The voice from behind made him jump 6 feet into the air, as he quickly hid behind one of the drawers nearby in fear. "I can see you from here, Almo..."

"...Stray? How did YOU end up in here?" He spoke with mild annoyance, one paw over his racing heart. The white street lamp next to the house and the moonlight lit up the hallway from certain places, in the shape of the windows. Sometimes, the flashlights of the passing cars would create small, square shaped, orange bundles of light that became distorted in lenght and size as the car passed by before disappearing completely. These orange lights shined on the white and grey fur of Stray's. And his collar was noticeable from 10 meters away.

He resembled someone very close to him at that moment. A fading face that was on his mind ever so often. A man with beautiful eyes that changed their colour ever so often, depending on the light. A man who's impossible to read, but can understand what you are thinking very clearly.  
He was a...  
A...

...

He tried to remember, frowning and concentrating on the face of the other cat. His head hurt from keeping his eyes open for too long, and thinking so much of a thing he cannot quite replace in it's place. As if his mind was a puzzle and he was losing the missing pieces that were thrown away by an annoying, hyperactive child. _...What is he? A... a scientist? Perhaps? Ah, I cannot remember..._

"I simply snuck inside from the open window in the kitchen. Well then, answer my question... This is not the house of your demon, correct?"

"His has a name you know... Call him Barbatos."

"His name is none of my business... Let's go to the kitchen. You look like you need some fresh air." Stray said and started to walk downstairs, with his collar shining brightly underneath the light for the last time, flopping his tail ever so often. Something about his expression was very unreadable.

"Stray, uh..." Almo called out to him, making the older spin around slightly to meet his gaze.

"Can you lower your tail a bit? I don't wanna see your nuts."

"..."

The two arrived to the kitchen after an awkward silence and Stray positioning his tail between his legs, walking a little weird. They walked around, jumped on the table and counter, sniff around for potential food and finally, they ended up sitting in front of the window, gazing outside.

It was hard to see the stars since there was just too much light pollution around, but it added to the usual charm of Devildom. Almo, being the city boy that he is, never liked the houses in the country side and always craved for a crowd, even though he didn't actually like being in one. He liked to live a simplistic, normal life. His ambitions were painfully normal. Graduate from the shit of a highschool he went to, go to an average university and graduate with a normal degree that wasn't anything special, become one of the 9-5 workers, and blend into the crowd. Maybe marry with someone and have a child or two. Live a normal life, stay out of trouble and then eventually...

Die.

Well, death came early to his doorstep in this life.   
His plans were crushed, and he was stuck as being a cat. The worse thing is, he was aware of his past life, when in reality the rules of reincarnation didn't allow that. Having no thumb from birth is better than having a thumb and then chopping it off. You are used to it. Same for his past life, he would've been perfectly happy without knowing what his previous life was like, and what ended it. But now, he knew that he was, well, human.

What he was going with this thought process was weird, and he didn't know how to put it into words. But, if he tried hard enough, he could explain it.

_Now that I am aware of what I was like, losing my memories and becoming a real cat is... very scary. I don't want it. I want to remain as me forever, as Almo. Not a simple cat with... with no self awareness. Well, that's not entirely true. Cats know that they are cats, as long as I can tell. And they have personalities as well. My problem is, losing my own personality and memories as Almo, and become a completely normal cat._

"...What's New York like?" Stray asked all of a sudden, without looking at him.

"Hm... Well, it's shiny. It's big. It's really crowded... There are tons of different people, that it is sometimes unnerving and really strange. I feel lonely..." Almo sighed, feeling the cold breeze on his fur. As if the wind was singing a gentle lullaby, or perhaps a song of bittersweet memories, his chest felt heavy while he recalled the vague scenery of the city. Meanigless chatter of the crowd, shopping malls... Overly bright buildings, superficial complaints of the people, ugly ideologies, stupid social movements, exaggerated politicians, politics everywhere, stupid people who feel like they can interfere with other stupid people's lives as if their fucking opinions fucking matter like they are some entitled piece of shit who can do whatever they want and face no consequences for it like some fucking spoiled five year old girl-

_Inhale._   
_Exhale._   
_Now is not the time to be angry, Almo._   
_It's not your problem if another person's hobby is to be insufferable as possible, as long as they don't say anything to you._

Listening to the idiotic chatter of rhe crowd can be something you miss, when you're dead. "You've never been in a place like that?" He asks after.

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. Does it really matter when I asked the question?" Almo could hear the smirk in his voice, but refused to glance at his way and instead he tried to search for the stars in the sky. The stars...

~~"See that star over there? The shiniest one."~~

~~"I do. That's actually Venus, right?"~~

~~"Yep. When you look at the night sky, if you are lucky enough, you will see Venus as the most brilliant star in the sky. Even though it is a planet."~~

~~"And that's why Lucifer got the name "Morningstar"? Huh... Never expected it to be something this sentimental. I wanna have a cool name too."~~

~~"Being created as a flawless creature comes with a life that is doomed to fail... A friend of mine from church said that to me once... Sometimes I wonder if he is right.~~

~~"Dad, what's that star over there?"~~

~~"Oh, that one is a part of a constellation. Connect the stars like this..."~~

"...Hey, Stray." He said all of a sudden and pointed somewhere with his paw, his eyes reflecting the city with all kinds of shiny signs and windows. His extended paw was gentle and a little hesitant, just like how he felt at the moment when he wanted to speak. "See that shiny star there?" His voice was soft and low.

"Hm... I do. That's Venus, right?"

"My dad told me that Lucifer got his name from it. Long ago." Something in Stray's eyes shined with hope and surprise, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Instead, a small smile formed on his face and he looked up as well, getting a little closer at Almo and putting an awkward paw on his "shoulder" in a friendly manner. Almo didn't question the act.

"Well, he was right."

\---

"Simeon, next time you want to get your point across, don't be so dramatic." The prince of Heavens' voice was stern, but not angry. He crossed his arms on his chest and his wings moving with his each movement of his feet or head as he spoke. The ombre look on his scarf, which he kept as a good luck charm all the time and was a classic attire of his at this point, shifted in the colours that the sky took when the sun was raising and setting. "But Michael..." Simeon attempted to make up an excuse, but himself off the last second, lowering his head in embarassment. He sighed, and averted his eyes from the higher angel. 

"I understand that the human's-"

"Call him by his name please. He is no ordinary human." 

Michael paused for a moment and continued. "Armbrecth' death had effected you greatly. You were his close friend and you are upset that you failed to protect him. And... Actually no, I can never understand your pain." He contradicted himself on purpose and got a surprised look from the lesser and younger angel. "However, there is only one thing we can do, if it will help you sleep better at night."

"And what might that be?" Simeon felt a warm and gentle hand on his shoulder, and looked at it for a brief second before turning back to him.

"We will find the killer and Armbrecht. I am certain that he is still alive somewhere, just like you."

\---

Meanwhile, a certain butler sprinted through the seemingly endless forest of Devildom with only his cloak and a flashlight on. It's been a few hours, and he could slowly see the rising sun (wait, can you really call it sun?), the weather took the colour of a sorrowful red. His hair was disheveled and his forehead was covered in sweat, as he ran and ran. To say that he was angry at himself for leaving the window open like that for far too long would he an understatement. He was livid, it was basically an invitation for Sunday to run away from there.

The reason why he chose the forest was because this was the closest place to his room. Sunday was a cat that liked to wander around without thinking much, and he also saw cat paw prints on the still-wet mud. However, the paw prints stooped when the ground became dry, and he realized that he was in the middle of nowhere.

He was used to dimly lit rooms, and was able to find his way through there without any problems. But this part of the forest was pitch black without the flashlight on, and he wasn't going to scream and then sense the sound waves like a fucking bat. Unfortunately, that wasn't in his list of abilities.

He looked around in the forest by aiming the flashlight quietly, only his breathing, fast beating heart, and the grasshoppers. Those annoying little creatures were everywhere nowadays, if you decide to run through a hill or fly close to the surface, there would be an army of them jumping with you. They were also the worst nightmare of the farmers in the outer skirts of the city, specifically Purple Devildom Rice farms.

But now wasn't the time to think of purple rice, he had a cat to find. "...Sundaaay!" As ridiculous as it felt, Barnatos put two hands next to his mouth and yelled into the abyss of the forest, hoping to hear a reply. Maybe the cat was able to recognise his name now? So, he would come out of those bushes? He wasn't sure what he accomplished with this small act but he didn't put too much thought into it, continuing to pass in the never ending forest. 

"Sunday, where are you-" He yelled once again, and tripped on a tree branch on the floor. In order to keep himself from falling completely, he had to put his hands on the floor and failed miserably. His hands felt uncomfortable when they made their contact with the cold and damp soil, along with the small pebbles and branches on it, and the right side of his clothing became dirty. Cursing at himself for being so clumsy, he turned towards the sky and sighed. 

**...Perhaps he really ran away...** He thought, and ran a hand through his bangs, ignoring the dirt on it. The past months he had spent with Sunday were... Complex. To say the least. But it was definetly fun. Sure, the anxiety of someone finding out that he had a pet cat could be challenging, but can you imagine what other servants and ESPECIALLY Diavolo would say? While the servants would mock him behind his back for breaking the rules and enforcing them strictly at the same time -he kinda had it coming, he knew that being overly strict about the "no pets" policy in the servants dorm was going to bite him in the ass someday-, Diavolo would react much worse.

He would DEMAND to get inside Barbatos' room to pet and kiss the cat. And then Barbatos would have to deal with all that shit, as if he doesn't have other problems already. But even though he had to go through all this trouble just to keep the cat, his life was the most peaceful it has ever been in these past months. Between his struggle with the whole murder, Diavolo's orders, Lucifer's usual bitchiness, and the important meeting that happened today, he didn't have time to take care of himself properly. Or take a moment to reflect on his emotions.

But his exhaustion seemed to disappear whenever he unlocked his the door to his room, and saw the cat he took in sleeping on his bed peacefully. The cat was prohibited from getting on top of his bed under any circumstances, however he seemed like he didn't give a single shit about that. Or when he almost stumbled on him in the middle of the night when he woke up to drink some water. When he was making food for Lucifer and Diavolo, he would often see something falling from to nearby tree and when he would check it, it would always be none other than Sunday. Or maybe, when he was stressed, Sunday would come to his side and lay on top of the paperwork he was dealing with. He became more of an inconvenience rather than a help, but it at least drew a good chuckle out of him. 

He was acting very strange lately.  
Very, _very_ strange.

He seemed to be smiling much more to himself, all of a sudden. His face would lit up at certain things in the castle because it reminded him of the cat (like a lintroller, for all things), even though he made sure to keep his straight face intact. And Diavolo noticed this right away of course. It's been years, centuries, millennias ever since he felt this connected to someone. Appreciate their presence.

**...Someone?**

Why didn't he use some _thing_ instead of some _one_ when he was thinking about Sunday?

**Maybe all that running got to my head. I should start exercising again soon... For now, I should head back. Maybe he'll come back tomorrow.**

\----

"Cats... They are intresting creatures."

"Now, I know a lot of things. Hundreds of years of knowledge is put into my brain, to the point I feel like I am about to burst."

"Human brain can hold endless knowledge. It just forgets it until it is reminded of that information again."

"Why am I telling you this? Well... I know a couple of things about this situation that no one knows about yet. So, I was thinking."

"It is getting boring to just watch everything and talk in this body. To liven things up a bit, should I keep this a secret and offer to help with the investigation?"

□ Yes □ No

"Oh wait, you can't pick any of these because she didn't gave you the choice to. Hyperlinks and stuff, that only works on computers unfortunately."

"Whatever is going to happen, surely will be intresting from this point on. Right, you?"

□ Yes □ Maybe 

"Maybe I could nudge them into the right direction. There is no way they will find his soul inside billions of other creatures. He could be an ant for Devildom's sake... Should I?"

■ Yes □ No

"Sorry, as I said. You don't get any choice in this."

"Well then, I guess it is time for me to shine, at last."


	8. Suspicion

**VICTIM NAME: ALMO ARMBRECHT  
Race: Human  
Sex: Male  
Age: 16  
Blood Type: (Human)A Rh+  
Estimated Time of Death: 04:20 PM-04:25 PM - 12/04/20XX  
Cause of Death: Strangulation**

**Details of The Body: The victim has been wounded in various parts of his body before their death, innciating that there was struggle between the victim and the killer. His right leg has been broken in 8 different places and 5 various, small cracks on his ankles bones have been spotted. Finger marks were found on his neck, most bruises were on his forearms and they were in the shapes of hands. Nail marks were also on them, the killer had sank their claws on the victim's arms.**

**The lower lip is busted, his 3 teeth are broken. His left middle finger, left pinky finger, right pointer finger, and right thumb has been chopped off. Blood and hair was found underneath his nails that does not belong to him. It is likely the killer's. The killer's scalp should hold 3 nail scratches on their left side, and 4 on their right side. The hair is a deep colour, almost black.**

**After the death has taken place, his chest was cut open in a cross shape with a sharp, 28 centimeters long (most likely fillet) knife. Three rib bones have been broken and his heart was ripped out from the body. The fillet knife has different fingerprints all over it.**

**The killer's blood type is (Demon)B Rh-, his blood sugar levels were low. Traces of powerful magic was found. The killer mostly uses their right hand, the wound inside the chest was angled towards left. He is stronger than an average demon, and is estimated to be around 1.80 centimeters.**

"Where could've he get the fillet knife...?" The angel prince sat on his desk with his beloved brother, the Morningstar by his side. 

"We have no idea, unfortunately... Satan said one of the knives inside the kitchen was missing that afternoon. He was planning on cooking some fish as dinner. He had to go an buy a new one with Leviathan an hour before the murder." Lucifer looked through the pictures in the autopsy report one more time, before taking one of the candies inside the bowl between them. His face was paler than his ass, seeing all those bloody pictures and Almo's cold, lifeless body, and his purple lips made him want to throw up. To ease himself a bit, he chose an apple flavoured one. He was no stranger to death. But that didn't mean he liked it.

Opening the wrapper under Michael's teasing eyes, he popped one into his mouth. He savored the artificial sour apple taste, he resisted the feeling to spit it out. "...Did you bought these from the cheap shop nearby? These taste like disgusting. Dried red plum roll-ups taste much better than this "

"You used to love them. What happened?"

"Not anymore. The last time I ate one, I got sick."

Michael chuckled softly, ignoring Lucifer's annoyed stare. "...I keep some candies in this house every year." He shrugged and smiled. "These don't expire, so kids come in here on Easter or Ramadan, maybe Hanukkah, and get some candy in exchange of celebrating the festivity with me. Luke loves them as well."

"He is basically your child at this point." Lucifer sucked on the candy inside his mouth and looked through the evidence list this time. The fillet knife, the hair, blood samples, Almo's shoe and jacket that had the killer's blood, his autopsy report, the testimonies of the witnesses, some other details and necessary paperwork, photos of the crime scene with the body still in it... An absolute bloodbath.

"...So, we are searching for a demon with dark hair that is around 6 foot tall, and 7 small wounds on his head, along with two horns and a tail... So specific yet so generic at the same time. What do we do?" Michael said and faced his brother, putting a hand underneath his chin as he spoke. He looked bored, flipping the pages back and forth for clues. "I made a promise to Simeon that we would find the killer and the human, but it looks like we are stuck already. Every single testimony is the same. A tail, grey clothing, and two horns..." Suddenly, his eyes lit up. 

"Wait, Lucifer. Didn't you just said that a knife disappeared before the murder from your kitchen?"

"I did- _Oh._ "

" _Oh_ indeed. Was it the same knife?" He asked with a semi- sarcastic voice at the beginning.

"I never paid any attention to the knives we use. But a simple fingerprint check should reveal everything..." Lucifer said and took off his one glove. Then, he took the bottle of washable ink from Michael and rubbed some of it on his thumb. He pressed his ink stained thumb agganist an empty sheet of one of the notebooks that was on the table, and waited for a while. He took his hand back and revealed the perfectly transferred fingerprint on the paper.

"If the knife belongs to our kitchen, then it should have my fingerprints on it." Lucifer said mostly to himself, comparing the two prints together with the ones that was found on the knife. Michael was kind enough to flip the fingerprints section of the file while he was busy with taking out his fingerprint. He stood up and got to Lucifer's side around the desk, and compared the prints.

"Let's see..." Michael mumbled and looked through them with concentration. 

"...The third one is identical to mine... I'm guessing you know what that means."

"It's someone who's been inside your house that day, before the knife got stolen, and then got out."

\---

 _I wonder if Barbatos is worried... Should I go back?_

Almo thought as he sat on Satan's lap, while he read a book and scratched his fur, casually listening to the weird classical music that was coming out of Satan's phone. It was probably Demon music, the melody was just too weird to belong to a human. It hurt his ears, they twitched ever so often because of it. So he got up from his lap and got his attention, jumped on the table next to the sofa, and put his one paw on the microphone of the phone. The music was muffled now.

"What are you doing?" Satan asked, half amused and half surprised. "You don't like the music?"

"Meow." _Nope._

"I see. I never thought a cat would be intelligent enough to do that." Satan took the phone away from his paws and clicked on the pause button quietly, then put it down. "Is the sound frequency too much for a cat's ears...? I wonder. I need to look through this sometime."

 _Hey, Satan? When will you look under my name plate, Barbatos' phone number should be there._ He thought and cursed his luck for not being able to speak with other beings, and sat on the desk. He began eyeing the cupcakes and especially the glass of milk on it, sniffing them. When he loved the smell and decided to lick it, Satan got those things away from the table and put it elsewhere.

"Kitten, that isn't good for your bowels. But you can eat some of the treats I have for you." Satan said, as if the cat could understand him(!) and pulled out a small tube out of his bag. He opened the cap and squeezed some out of it, and offered it to him. The first thing Almo noticed about the cap is that the letters didn't made any sense to him. Some were unidentifiable shapes and scribbles, and some were plain letters. He assumed that it was a different language, but he still had a bad feeling about it. 

Almo sniffed the contents of the tube and immedietly noticed that it was one of those pastes you can give to cats as treats. This one was chicken flavoured, and it smelled _heavenly_. He quickly began licking it and savoring the taste, it was unlike anything he had eaten before. For some reason, he felt his paws digging into something, and realized that he was kneading the corner of the table. His claws extended in and out of his paws, an action which the demon of wrath absolutely adored.

"...I'm glad you liked it. Last time Lucifer allowed me to get a cat, I got more than 80 cats inside. He never allowed anyone to get an animal inside ever again. I think I was... 900 years old at that time."

 _Wow. What happened to those cats?_ He thought and continued to suckle on the tube, purring at the same time.

"I started to look after their kittens after that. And now... I still feed a couple. I wonder what they are up to, last time Barbatos was freaking out because two kittens broke into the kitchen and played inside the pie dough he was preparing." He chuckled, and Almo let go of the tube to stare at his face. He felt something in his chest banging. Satan was the type to never say too much, or too less. And he mostly kept his concentrated, straight face. But seeing that he was more talkative with him (Sunday), he felt happy. He liked his smile.

"...Ever since the guest in our house got murdered, the house is... Really empty. And quiet. Even Mammon stopped his stupid schemes and isn't bothering us too much. As for me... I miss him. Truly. Though Simeon is persistent that he is still alive somewhere. I was reading a book about his theory, reincarnation... Though the concept itself is simple, it gets confusing quickly."

_Hi, it's me again! Let me explain the concept real quick in an easy way!_

_Reincarnation literally means "being born again". However, it doesn't always happen between the same species. For example, Buddhists believe that they will be born as animals, and animals will be born as humans when they die. This also applies in this situation. After my soul left my dead human body, it eas planted inside this cat's body. However, despite of the soul being the same, the souls do not remember anything about their past lives. Only a sense of familiarity through deja-vu's, maybe._

_You know what deja-vu means, right? Uh... I hope you do. It's basically looking at or experiencing something and feeling like you exprienced it before, despite of it being your first time. Though you've been the situation in your new life for the first time, you already did it in your previous life. That's why they happen... Or I at least think so._

_Anyway. The problem isn't me being inside of a cat's body (that's a huge portion of it but not entirely). The problem is, I am not supposed to remember my previous life. In short, I have access to the information I shouldn't have to begin with. The problem lays inside the core of the situation. In order to not disturb the cycle of reincarnation, I am slowly forgetting my memories and and the information I have from my previous life time._

_But that is a huge problem, as you can probably see. The moment I forget everything, the moment I become a regular cat. I won't be able to understand what humans, demons or angels are saying. I won't remember anyone, and it would be impossible for my soul to go back to a human's body ever again. And my soul will disappear because it will find nowhere to go. I am guessing that something happened while Azrael put my soul inside this body, and it caused my memories to be intact._

_I'm not saying that's what happened, but it is in the realm of possibility... How did Solomon remember his past lives then? How the hell am I supposed to know!? He got a ring from the big man upstairs for crying out loud! Anyway, again. Seeing people from my past life should help me to hold on to my family for a while longer, before I find a way to change back. If I can, of course... Go on with the story! Come on, don't mind me._

"...We should call your owner before Lucifer comes in and demands it. What a shame. I wanted to keep you for a while." Satan kissed his forehead and caused the cat to scramble away from the table. But all that happened was; Almo ended up slipping on the table and falling on the floor, along with the table. The action caused Satan to laugh loudly. 

He soon went back to his book, after he cleaned up the mess.

While Satan was still busy with reading, Almo sneaked out of the house with curiosity in his eyes. He didn't have a chance to see how the others were doing. By the looks of it, Satan was pretty good. He was one of the two most sensible people in this house, the second one being Lucifer. He either had hope that Almo wasn't dead, or he just learned to move on. Which hurt his chest, he wasn't going to lie.

He didn't really want to be forgotten by the brothers. He didn't want to become a memory that came and go on specific conversations or days. But he had to accept that. Unless he managed to turn back to normal, he was doomed to be a distant memory in their minds. Frowning, he ran in the halls with his small feet making "pat-pat-pat" sounds. To where? The common hall, of course. Most people hanged out in there.

What he found in there was... surprising. To say the least. 

Not only Mammon and Asmodeus were sitting there, basically glued to each other with the youngest's arm around his older brother's shoulder in a condescending manner, there was also something on the shelf on top of the fireplace. A picture of him inside an elegantly decorated frame, with various flowers and other items around it. 

He froze in place and stared at the picture for a while. A picture of him in his school uniform, with a small silver brooche on his tie, a present from Mammon. Holding the lunchbox him and Beelzebub made together. With a book underneath the lunchbox, the one he stole from Satan as a prank. Making the peace sign, a habit he picked up from Leviathan. With a light layer of make up on his face, done by Asmodeus. And the picture was taken by Lucifer two months before his death. 10 present boxes were placed next to it, a thin vase with his favorite flowers, orange and purple tulips, inside. 

In the picture, he was laughing brightly, probably at something Mammon said from behind the camera. His birth and death date, along with his name, was carved on a metal plate underneath the picture. His text and notebooks were placed on the shelf, full of scribbles and drawings. His D.D.D was confiscated for the investigation, but other than that, most of his important items were displayed there.

"...I missed his birthday, Asmo. I just realized that. My dumbass completely forgot it, and it's been almost two months." He couldn't recognize Mammon's voice for a moment, he turned towards there. Mammon was sitting with Asmodeus, facing the door. Asmodeus held an upset, sad expression while Mammon tried his best to keep his tears inside.

"...A lot has happened. I'm sure Almo didn't mind it. He is greedy like you, he wouldn't mind when he gets something as long as he gets it." Asmodeus looked very awkward, him and Mammon didn't have a good relationship. At all. He made Mammon shed tears a couple of times this century with his words, and Mammon pulled on his hair and tampered with his cosmetics with revenge, almost giving him a huge allergic reaction. 

"No, Asmo... Ya don't understand. Everyone else got him somethin', but I forgot. I was busy mopin' in my room. I... I feel like shit. What if he feels disappointed? Sad? It was supposed to be his 17th birthday..."

 _You idiot..._ Almo thought, and got closer to them. Each step leading to a small ache in his heart. And a fury towards his murderer. However, before he could reach there and make his presence known, his whiskers twitched and he sensed someone else's presence in the room. A shadow lured over him and picked him up by his chest and stomach with two, big and warm hands. _Sir, put me dOWN-_

Hearing the noise, Asmodeus turned towards them and let out a dramatic gasp, causing Mammon to flinch. "Solomon, when did you come in here!? I thought the portal was closed to humans!" He got up and rushed to his side, and the two exchanged a small kiss. 

_Ewww, gross! Get a room, you two!_

"Eww, get a room ya idiots!"

"Hello to you too, Asmodeus, Mammon." Solomon's calm voice came out, and he put the cat on his shoulder like a baby. "It's rude to ignore this little guest, isn't it?"

\---

Pulling a chair from the table, he set in front of his window and sat on it, and waited. The small hope he had in his friend, that be would come back any moment now, was slowly disappearing. He put his favorite wet food inside the bowl, along with some water. He sat in there. Waiting. Waiting. And waiting. Not bothering to check the cake he had in the kitchen. "...Why isn't he back yet? It's been hours." He mumbled, clutching his phone in his hand and checking it every 5 seconds to see if there are any messages or calls. 

**I wonder if something actually happened to him...**

"What are you doing?" He saw a familiar figure approaching, and quickly hid the food bowl, spilling some water on his crotch in the process and cursing. He didn't look up for a while, out of embarrassment. And then, after an agonizing minute, he slowly raised his head to meet with brown and golden eyes, and a weirdly styled white hair. "Solomon. You can't walk through this part of the castl- Why is the cat with you?" He questioned abruptly and got up, both relieved and confused at the same time.

"The cat? Why not _a_ cat?" Solomon smiled in his usual manner, and gently placed the squirming cat, whom he grabbed by his nape, on Barbatos' arms. The cat hissed at him and digged his claws in Barbatos' jacket. _B... BARBATOOOOOOOS!!!_ Almo meowed loudly and hugged him, rubbing his face all over the man's neck. _Dude, I missed you! I really missed you! I wish I could talk to you! I'm sorry for disappearing like tha- Did you pee your pants?_

He soon felt Barbatos' gloved hands on his jacket, and heard a hitch in his breath. He was probably chuckling at this exaggerated form of affection. Almo also felt him scratching his head. _Just the perfect place..._ He melted in his arms, and started to purr. He didn't pay any attention to the conversation around him. "I found him in the House of Lamentation. Asmodeus then tried to make him wear costumes, but he ended up crying when the cat clawed his face... Never knew you adopted a cat." 

"That is none of your business, I'm afraid." Barbatos' warm face quickly dissappeared, though his petting didn't stop.

"Is that why his collar has your second phone number?" His eyes twinkled, and then made a gesture that meant "Don't ask" when Barbatos' eyes widened for a split second. **Cheeky bastard.** "...How's the investigation doing?" He asked the triggering question, and Barbatos resisted the urge to sigh. "...Diavolo got a phone call this morning. He sent a few things to the forensics for fingerprint check. If they match, that means Lucifer and Michael managed to lower down the list of suspects quite a bit." 

To that, Almo quickly came to his senses. Right. There was an investigation happening about him. Right... He perked up his ears and listened in wonder.

"And who are them?"

"...I cannot tell you that." Was that a hesitation in Barbatos' voice, or was Solomon tripping? A little more pushing, and maybe he would speak up.

"What a shame... I had a clue regarding where Almo could be, but I cannot give information away either..." The fake disappointment in Solomon's voice was starting to get on Barbatos' nerves. "I guess you'll just have to find it out on your own. And here I thought that you would accept the help from your pactmate.." The sorcerer added.

"Solomon, if you are here to say things that doesn't make any sense, then I'd suggest you leave before I call the guards. Trespassing in this section of the castle is strictly prohibited. Our pact has nothing to do with this situation." 

"It has, if I force you to give me the list of suspects and the reason for that. I know you care about my fellow human." 

_...What is that supposed to mean?Well, I suppose that's expected. But this isn't some weird shounen-ai fanfiction written about a man who got reincarnated as a cat... ~~That's exactly what it is, but without the proper shounen-ai shit.~~_

"...Come inside, don't speak a word, and stay put." He stepped away from the window, and allowed the sorcerer jump through it. 

\---


	9. Comfort

The quiet, peaceful time in Satan's room never lasted more than a few hours, as there was always something that managed to piss him off in this stupid fucking household. However, today was especially different. To say that he was livid at the moment would be the understatement of the century. He was reading his book quietly when Lucifer knocked on his room and entered without an answer. He held a frown of fury, and Satan was about to ask "What did I do this time?", before he noticed how tired his older brother looked. 

His hair was disheveled from running hus hands through it for too much, his clothes were messy, his tie was undone and his eyes held a tired expression. Ever since the discovery they made last week, and the fingerprint test and confirmed their suspicions, he had been feeling... pretty uneased. Conflicted. "Satan." Lucifer spoke with a quiet tone, very contrary to his normal character.

"Go join Levi downstairs. You both are the prime suspects in the investigation. Uriel will take your testimonies."

\---

While Barbatos gave Almo a mini manicure and pedicure (which was basically cutting his nails with a pair of pet nail clippers, wiping the dirt between his paws and the small pads underneath it, and then smoothing out the fur with a pretty small pet brush. He trimmed the access fur and in 45 minutes, all of his nails were perfectly clipped and his paws looked cuter than anything he had seen before.

During this 45 minutes, he stood perfectly still and listened to the conversation the two men had with interest, basically sitting in a princess position. Solomon made sure to get a few shots of him on his phone, and promised Barbatos to not share it on Devilgram (as much as he was tempted to) when the butler aimed a sharp pocket knife on his throat. The two knew that there was no way Barbatos would actually kill him and it was just for an inside joke, but Almo didn't knew that. So he just watched the whole thing unfold with fear and sighed in relief when Barbatos put the knife back on the table. "You should give Asmodeus a manicure as well, you seem talented with animals." Solomon teased.

"Asmodeus isn't an animal though."

"He is, in bed-"

"Keep your sex life to yourself."

 _They seem like they get along..._ Almo thought sarcastically, and laid down on Barbatos lap as he clipped the nails on his right paw. He stated at Solomon for a while. Was it just him or is Solomon more mischievous nowadays? A shady sorcerer with eyes like a hawk and a sharp mind. Why was he so curious about the investigation? And what did he mean by "I have a clue on where Almo is."? What was he planning? A part of him didn't want to know, if he was perfectly honest.

"...Leviathan and Satan are the prime suspects." He said abruptly, making Solomon's eyes go wide. "But why?"

_Wait... Wait, what? What? What what what what???_

"The killer's description is a young demon man, around 1.80, dark hair, two horns and a tail, and he is a right handed man, and has 7 small, nail shaped wounds on their head, if he hasn'r healed himself already. Here, check the autopsy report. A copy should be on that drawer over there." He pointed towards his drawer and the sorcerer reached there, pulling out a stack of papers, identical to the ones Lucifer and Michael had. He was taken aback by the graphic pictures, but it was nothing he wasn't used to.

_Hold on a moment, you are progressing way too fast! What is going on in here!? There is no way Satan or Levi would... There is just no way!_

"...Seeing dead bodies isn't a hobby of mine. I have to admit." He mumbled and looked through the pages. After some thinking with the sounds of the nail clippers clinking in the background, and reading through the entire document along with the additional tests and such, he looked back at the butler.

"Let me guess. The fillet knife from the House of lamentation was "stolen" 1 hour prior to the murder, and because Satan wanted to make food with it, he said he had to go outside to buy a new one. And Leviathan tagged along with him for whatever reason. Since both have horns and tails, they became the suspect... Am I right?"

_No, no, you're wrong..._

"Down to every last word. Congratulations." A small hint of sarcasm could be heard in Barbatos' voice. "That isn't the only reason. Satan has small wounds on his scalp. Since Almo's nails are... was very sharp and long," Solomon and _Almo_ didn't miss the small pause in there, "the wounds had to leave at least small scars, even on a demon. And he is right handed... But we have two problems, Satan's blood type and hair colour doesn't match. Leviathan's on the other hand, despite of having no injuries, matches. But Leviathan is a left handed man."

"So it is a confusing mess, overall." Solomon put the files down and began thinking. "What would be their motive though? Every murder happens for a reason."

"The murder is quite gruesome, so everyone suspects Satan at the moment..." He put the clippers down and cracked his knuckles, then stretched his fingers. They were cramping from holding such a small thing for a while now. "He didn't defy Lord Diavolo at first about the program, and Lucifer doesn't seem like he believes any of his brothers committed the act either... It is confusing, indeed."

"Do you have any personal ideas about who the killer might be?"

"Whenever I look into other timelines while I dealt with my own investigation, it was always the same demon. But it is impossible to track him down without looking suspicious, or accidentally making my presence known to my other self. Then I have to deal with the hassle of deleting that one... I just wish everything would come to an end soon." He sighed, shaking his head and causing his bangs to fly sideways. He soon turned back to his business with the cat. "But if I had to give an answer... I don't think it's any of them."

Solomon laid back on the couch with his left ankle on top of his right knee, crossing his arms and thinking more. "What if..." He began and put a hand on his chin in deep thought. "the killer is entirely someone else, but is in the same household? Someone we don't know about?"

"Someone we don't know about?" Barbatos raised one brow.

"I don't know, but it's a possibility. It could still be someone related to the brothers, but was not there." Solomon shrugged.

 _Someone who's related to them but wasn't there... Only one person comes to mind. That is the only possibility..._ Almo kicks Barbatos' hand away and sits up, listening to them with more intently now.

"Anyway. That's a I have for you. It's your turn." Barbatos said, much to Almo's inner protests. Though he was curious as to what Solomon had to offer. "I heard Azrael a few days ago." Solomon must've put it a bit too blunty, since Barbatos took a good two minutes of silence to progress what in the dick's fuck Solomon just said.

"...You heard his voice? What did he say?" He finally said, and didn't mind the sorcerer's jokingly offended look. _Dude, your human pactmate just said he heard the **DEATH'S** voice. Can't you at least act a bit concerned?_ Almo stared at him between the awkward tension in the air, sighing to himself. It felt nice to have Barbatos brushing the fur on his paws, but this man really couldn't be bothered...

Solomon got a piece of paper from his pocket. It was written in a hurry, and looked more like the drawing of a child's nightmare instead of a sentence. But it was comforting, at the same time. "The ones you seek for is the least you think of, with a rose's thorns on his head, and rain drops instead in his eyes. He will forget it all, for you're so blind. For the wretched man with the wine of copper in his hands, layers of sky on his fingertips, did the hysterical deed and you failed to fathom it..."

"...I heard his voice in my sleep. I woke up, and... Ended up writing everything word by word."   
The voice was warm, but his eyes were blood shot, his hands were cold and his lips were purple. He squeezed Solomon's shoulders and got close to him, and told these things. He couldn't look away from the death's face, his 2 pairs of broken wings, and a pair of twisted, rustled ones on top. The death's infamous grasp was very hard, painful, and terrorizing. No matter how strong Solomon got, he would always, deep down somewhere, fear the death itself. It was instinct. He was human.

Barbatos folded the paper back and put it inside his own pocket, sighing. "...This definetly sounds like something he would say."

"You've met him before?"

"I have."

~~"There is this murder mystery game I used to love. But I never actually finished the first game... Wanna play it with me?"~~

~~"No, I don't have time to hang out with you."~~

~~"Oh... Alright. I thought you would like it as well, but... Another time, I guess."~~

~~"Almo, there won't be another time. I decided to end my friendship with you, why can't you understand that?"~~

~~"...I- I didn't know, I didn't realize. I'm sorry... I just-"~~

~~"There you go, with your apologies again. Can that mouth of yours even say anything else besides that? Don't you think acting the way that doesn't require you to apologize afterwards is the best? Or is that head of yours is too empty to understand that? "~~

~~"Forgive me please..."~~

~~"Just... Get out of my life. I don't want a burden like you around. Never talk to me again."~~

\---

"How simpler could I get without revealing the answer too much?"

"Poor child..."

"Have I done a mistake, I wonder..."

"No, it is too late to go back."

"Soon, I will come there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the significantly short chapter :"( I had no idea what else to write. 
> 
> I hope I will be able to wrap up the story already... (it'll probably take more than 10 chapters or some shit at this rate)


	10. Liquor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ma'am, I want some "I have a big plot twist in mind about who the killer will be but I have no idea how to include it in the story in a way that makes sense" juice please.

Barbatos let out a hiss as he sat down in the closest bench close to an empty park, staring at his foot in discomfort. Things have been hectic in the Castle ever since Solomon visited him, and after speaking about it with the prince the next day, many of the hours of the day was spent on where the youngest brother of the Archangel Michael was, what he was doing, and just what he meant with this stupid riddle. With all this thinking he had to do and all the places he visited with the hopes of finding him all around the Devildom, and the Human world, combined with his usual tasks, it was a little too busy for him. He had to check 7 different timelines, just to make sure that this event wasn't just exclusive to the one he was currently in, plus he had been going without sleep for almost 11 days now. 

He already had a problem with how his shoes were getting uncomfortable. An when he walked around for days without having the time to sit down somewhere and rest for a bit, his feet was starting to protest about their situation. After making sure that no one was around, he took off his one shoe with a huge sigh of both relief and pain, and closed his eyes for a moment to appreciate the feeling of freedom. He then sstared at his foot, noticing the blood blotches all over the white socks he wore. Cursing to himself, he wore the shoes back with a quiet hiss, and checked out his other foot. The same result was there.

After cursing his luck and wondering just how he was going to keep on his day with his usual straight face when his feet were screaming in pain just by standing up, he eventually got up. He knew that he had to push himself to his limits. As a demon, it would be embarrassing to have his body collapse so easily, like a human. So, bracing himself, he continued to walk. _Barbatos, hear me out._ He heard a man's voice in the back of his head and sighed. It's him, again. What did he even want this time?

**What do you want?**

_What creature could have eyes that would look like glass?_ His voice was a little slurred, and it was obvious he wasn't really focused in the conversation.

**Isn't that a description for a pair of human eyes?**

_I doubt it._

**Solomon, I have business to take care of. Figure it out yourself.**

_All I can think of is a dog... Or a cat. If you look closely, their eyes Luke- ah fuck... look like a colourful disk, with a half-sphere glass put over them._

**Are you drunk?**

_5 shots. Hey, why don't you drink some too?_

**I can't drink on job.**

_I order you to come over to the Balloon Bar at the end of the 6th Regret Street._

Barbatos sighed in defeat when his feet started to move agganist his own will. This wasn't the first time the drunk Solomon tried to reach over to him for stupid reasons when he got drunk. Though last time it happened, he was babbling about the possible side effects of sunscreen, and how Lucifer and Count Dracula could be the same person. Barbatos wished in that moment thar he could press a button and silence Solomon's voice from his mind. Eventually, he left him alone to drink more (probably). And Barbatos thought about what he said.

 **A cat huh... Glassy eyes that look like tear drops. Ears that look like a rose's thorns... The description fits. But "The one you think the least of" part is off putting. The one you least expect... A cat... Other than Sunday, I haven't seen any cats that looked and acted strange. But that is way too convinient. Isn't it?** He continued to walk, feeling the pain and burn reaching up to his ankles. He hissed again. How was he going to go back to that bar at this rate?

 **Regret Street is far away... Whatever, I'll just get a taxi.** He thought, before heading towards the taxi stop.

\---

He felt the wind blowing on his face as the 2nd youngest ride his bicycle in the streets of Devildom, with his favourite song in his headphones. The ones he got from his oldest brother, who got them as a small present. While the he seemed to be fixated on the crowd ahead of him, the cat, who was sitting inside the small basket in front of the bicycle, was looking around with huge interest. He never knew that Beelzebub had a bicycle in the first place, but it made sense. He exercised a lot.

His white and brown fur waved around in the wind, contrasting greatly agganist the bright signs all around. The well built demon sang along to the song to himself, low enough so no one would hear him. Inhaling the mixed smells coming from the open windows of the apartments, Almo sighed. Some food, some spices, some perfume, some cleaning supplies. It was strange, but he felt at home. Crowd... Oh, how he missed the background chatter.

He had snuck out of the house again, so he decided to pay the House of Lamentation a visit. Out of all the brothers, only Lucifer knew that his butler friend was the owner of that cat, and it was a huge secret between them. And he didn't mind the visits at all. So, seeing that this cat was the traveler type- _As if I am a fucking pokemon, what do you mean "type"?_ \- Beelzebub decided to take Almo with him during his ride. 

"Wait here, I'll buy some water for myself..." He stopped his bike near a small grocery store and locked it in place, then gave him a small pat on the head. He smiled when the cat meowed at him and laid down inside the basket, putting his chin on the corner of it and watching around. With onw last glance, he went inside the grocery store. An angry voice called out to him, a voice he hadn't heard in a while.

"The hell are you doing here?"

"Stray?"

"Shhhhh!" The older cat hissed and jumped inside the basket as well, awkwardly squishing himself in it next to him. Almo stood up to give him some space, and stared down at him. They were awkwardly close, but he paid no mind to it.

"Aren't you supposed to be indoors? Since when have you become an adventurer cat? What happened to your human body? Name? Do you remember your name?" The cat rambled and got way too close to the other's face, making Almo's ears fold back and the fur on his back get all puffed up. "I- I do... It's the only thing I hear nowadays." He spoke, sinking in on the corner of the basket. "Alright... As long as that's still in tact. It's great." Stray sighs and pulls back, staring at the younger. "You see... I've been hanging around that single-man guy recently."

"...Solomon?" Almo said after a few seconds of blank staring into the other's face. "There is no way he's single."

"Whatever his name is." Stray brushed it off as if it meant nothing. His face turned then serious, his chest puffing up and his pupils getting turn into black orbs that covered half of his brown and gold eyes. "Listen, he's onto something. I think he knows that you're... Well, your situation. Or at least he has a clue." 

"Well, I know that. He had one foot in the ditch during his sleep, death visited, gave him some bullshit riddle and left, right? He told Barbatos about it. I was there."

"No, not just that." Stray shook his head sideways. "He has the ring of wisdom, remember?"

Silence.

"...Don't tell me you don't know what that is." He said with wide eyes.

"...Both of my parents are atheists. I have no clue what you mean... Haha..." He said sheepishly, putting a paw on the back of his neck and smiling awkwardly under his friend's ridiculing gaze. Stray sighed, and looked down at his collar for a moment to think of what to say. After a while, he raised his head with a seriouz frown. "...Look. You either get up on your ass and talk to him, or show great sighs of intelligence so people would actually understand something is up. The ring of wisdom gives him the ability to talk to animals."

"That... Is new information! I never heard of that!"

"You didn't know how to unhook a bra for your entire life. I'm not that surprised." Stray somehow said that with a straight face as he adjusted his collar with a flashy, yet classy movement.

"...How do you know that?" 

"You seem like the type."

"The hell is that supposed to mean!?"

...Was what happened that evening, and Almo was still very pissed about it.

 _Okay, so, new information is here._ Almo thought as he looked around on the bed he laid down, on his back, like a real human. His stomach was met by the comforting flow of air from the air conditioner. The beginning of Summer was already here. He put his laws underneath his head and stared at the ceiling. Barbatos was over working today, again. Come to think of it, he hasn't been back at home in almost 2 weeks now. Oh well, at least he was being paid extra now. With the doors closed, the lights turned off, and only the fan open, the room gained a creepy aesthetic but it was still cute. Aside from the fact that he found a pair of condoms on the bathroom drawer last weekend, nothing was out of the ordinary. 

_Whoever he is using the condoms on better be fucking worth it._  
Nope, he wasn't annoyed at all. No sir. His demon is out there, spending time with others while he was here, all alone. Nope, he was definitely fine. Definitely not jealous like an insecure 13 year old. _Anyway, as I was saying... New information is out. Let's go over all the events one more time to make sure that everything is going smoothly._

_So, I got murdered by a possible dude that had a grudge agganist Diavolo and his plan, which is like 80% of the demon population. Satan and Levi are the prime suspects but their profiles don't exactly match up the killer's. But they are still being held underneath police watch just in case. Acording to stray, Solomon has the power to speak with animals. So, I can easily tell him what's up with me, but at the same time I need to make Barbatos realize that I'm not a cat. Aside from that, Azrael decided to send this stupid message to Solomon for no reason, when he could've worked with literally anyone else. I guess that is a huge miscalculation and an unnecessary filler scene in this lore but I guess we can work with that somewhow. Or just completely ignore the fact that nothing ever makes sense in this thing._

_What is the next course of action?_

_Appear like an intelligent human being as much as possible, next to Barbatos._

_When will he come back?_ He stared at the clock in the room, which pointed at 9 PM sharp. There was still time until he came back, as the man always insisted on overworking himseld, so Almo decided to sleep for a while. He didn't have anything to do anyway, and watching the sorry excuse of a sunset was getting boring. Still, he fell asleep in a very peaceful way with the gentle smlell of summer on his nose, the mechanical sound if the fan on his ears, and the wind of it on his fur. He closed his glassy, almond eyes slowly.

The dreams he had that night were vivid. But they were still quiet and warm.

\---

He woke up after he sensed an unfamiliar smell inside the room. An intruder, perhaps. Or it could be simply Barbatos, and he tried on a different perfume, or maybe Diavolo got a little too close to him. He didn't know. But it was definetly alarming. Opening his eyes to the sound of the door clicking and opening, he stared at the intruder with his half-closed eyes.

"...I'm home." A familiar voice spoke, in a whisper, as he took off his shoes and put them in the small shelf nearby. Ever since Almo has been in there, Barbatos had begun greeting him when he came back and tell him he was going to work every morning. For some reason. Who even says bye to their cats nowadays? Knowing that it is just Barbatos, he attempted to close his eyes again and sleep. However, the curiosity got the best of him and he was too fixated on the bouquet of flowers the butler had in his hands. 

It was a bouquet of pink roses. Well, not really a bouquet, it was more like 4 gigantic roses put together with a gold ribbon and a cute bow. Barbatos stared at the roses in his hands a while in thought, before walking- no, stumbling towards the trash in an odd way. He stepped on the button on it, opened the can, and held the roses just above it. But, for some strange reason, he seemed to stop right before he threw them inside there. 

Turning on the lights and ignoring the "Mrrrp" of protest from the cat, he walked over to his desk while gripping onto whatever object that was on his way, he picked two heavy encyclopedias. He actually bought for reference material at a test, but then forgot about it. He opened one and put the roses in one page, before closing the thick book and pressing on it with his hands. He almost collapsed on the desk but managed to keep his balance. After 30 seconds of pressure, he pulled back and slid the book inside it's place, then put the other thick book on top of it. Staring at the books for the last time, he sighed, as if questioning what he was even doing.

~~"Um..."~~

~~"What do you want?"~~

~~"...I just wanted to ask something."~~

~~"And this couldn't have waited until the end of time?"~~

~~"Will... Will you help me pick out flowers? I want to dry their petals between my books."~~

~~"I thought I told you to leave me alone and never show your face again."~~

~~"...I have my own reasons, since I am coming to you of all people."~~

~~"I am the only one you come to, since no other person can tolarate your existence longer than 3 seconds. And what might this reason be?" ~~~~~~

~~~~~~"..."~~ ~~ ~~

~~~~~~Let me guess. You are searching for the attention your parents never gave you by forcing others to be friends with you. Correct?"~~ ~~ ~~

~~"..."~~

~~"...There are flowers in the 3rd year classrooms. You can pick a few from there."~~

Almo got up from the bed he was laying on top of and stretched his muscles. He hopped off of the bed with softly and walked over to him. He was annoyed by the smell the butler spread around the room. It wasn't an unpleasant one. It was quite nice actually, a good quality perfume was on his jacket and shirt. But it was an unwelcome one. Barbatos' perfumes never smelled like these. _What are you doing in this hour? You smell like overly expensive perfume. Take a bath. I hate it._

"...Hello." He merely acknowledged the other one's existence and went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face. The sound of the water splashing rather loudly filled the room and startled him at first, and he glared at the dark figure of the demon for a while. He sat there, watching him with hus sharp eyes while Barbatos wiped his face with the towel he had. The man then turned at him and crouched down at his side, petting his head on the soft carpet. 

"...Almo." He said all of a sudden, and smiled at the name. The kitten stared at him in disbelief, not knowing what to think or feel. Was he supposed to feel anxious? Happy? Did Barbatos even recognized him or was he talking out of his obviously shit-faced ass? His shoulders were sunken, his eyes were dull and barely kept themselves open, his cheeks were slightly flushed, and his hands were extremely cold. It was probably because of the water, but Barbatos' hands were exceptionally cold. His legs seemed to wobble a lot and blood could be seen in his white socks. 

"I got drunk and went to a graveyard, I... I'm sorry if I look bad..." He said as he wiped some of the dirt and grass he had on his face. He obviously fell in there and got some stuck on himself. He seemed far more relaxed, and he was smiling. All of a sudden, he fell to his side with a thud and groaned in pain, his cheek squashed agganist the carpet. "Everyone misses you so much... Ev... Ever wonder why Azrael isn't at our door yet? Beause he doesn't wanna get involved in this shit of a case..." 

_Language, young man._

He slammed his fist on the floor all of a sudden and made Almo's tail puff up from fear. "My feet started to bleed cause I was looking for him! Can you believe that!? Even though I know it's you! That you're here, but no one would believe me if I said that... Ugh- I hate everything. _sniff_... You wanna know who killed you? Belphegor! Who else? He escaped the attic somehow, I am absolutely sure of it. I'll... I'll prove it!" He rocked himself back and forth on the carpet and expressed his frustrations with a very colourful analogies, while Almo stared down at him with cold sweat on his cheek and sighed. A troubled smile came over his face while this serious, badass and handsome butler broke down on the floor like a collage student on their finals. Which wasn't that bad, rather it was intresting, but it was still a hassle. 

"Solomon made me drink stuff... I never get drunk, but I almost crashed his car... Ah, I am going to get a bad hangover tomorrow..." 

_...Drinking and driving too? You're worse than my uncle._ Almo climbed on top of his back and made himself comfortable, getting buried inside the man's scent of mixed perfumes and booze. The warmth, the intensity of his emotions was something Almo knew. But he would never admit his gratitude. His own anxiety and fear, his hours that were spent with empty and cold thoughts about his death, the things he wanted to do in his adulthood, even though he knew there was no hope for him and his life. He would never talk about any of these, and he would never show his graditude. Never. Instead, he would brush it off with words like "You didn't need to", or "Fine, I guess". But deep down in his heart, he exprienced everything on a much bigger scale. 

With a few more incoherent, stupid sentences, the drunk man finally drifted off to sleep on the floor with only the carpet between him and the cold. With his small cat by his side. 


	11. Bath Tub

"No, no there is just no way! I don't care if I have to get convicted, just leave my brother out of this!" The serpent's tail whapped agganist the floor as he sat down on the dimly lit room, with a silver, undestructible handcuff on his left hand. As much as he struggled agganist it and screamed at his oldest brother to get his shit together and let them go, he just looked away, not wanting anyone to see the doubt in his eyes. Doubt of the entire case. 

An empty look was notable on the Prince of Heavens' face, whether it is from boredom or pity. While he played around with the corner of the plastic cover of the file in his hands, he stared back at the fallen demon.

"Labeling someone as a murderer when that person is innocent is one of the greatest sins. It is blasphemy towards every single thing that holds this world together, in my opinion..." He said and didn't mind the ridiculing look from the serpent, who was growing more annoyed each second. 

Brushing his sand-coloured bangs aside, he fixed his caramel coloured jacket and leaned back on the seat once more to make himself comfortable. Quite the opposite of the posture of the other, which was hunched and his one hand tied on the desk, and the other one between his legs loosely. 

"That is why we cannot accept a false testimony, or a confession. Your story doesn't line up." 

"Just accept the damn thing and let Satan go! He is too smart to commit murder!" Leviathan slammed his hand on the table and got a glare from the angel, his shiny blue eyes looking like a tamed carnivore behind his glasses. "You said that you stole the newly bought knife from Satan's bag and then told him you were going to the cartoon merchandise store nearby. Next time you lie, don't put unnecessary adjectives anywhere and think twice. The knife on the kid's chest wasn't newly bought, it came from you and your brother's house."

A frustrated, angry sigh left the older's lips and he lowered his head, his weirdly shaped horns feeling heavy on his head. It wasn't always he felt this... bad, protective of someone from his family. Satan could very well prove his innocence with ease, he could take care of himself. But he was the youngest of them all, due to the circumstances of his birth. He just felt like he had to do that with a lame lie and risk his life, he was already worthless compared to literally anyone else. A lame, yucky, stupid otaku that is nothing but an expense, a burden to the family. The 3rd sibling. Nothing more. 

So, his execution wouldn't hold any important consequence. His brothers were always closer with each other, and he was the outcast. He refused to hang out with them due to his own reasons, whether it was anxiety, a sense that he wasn't good enough yo hang out with them, or he just didn't feel like it. As a result, he wasn't invited to anywhere with them anymore. He was left alone, just like he wanted. But... But it still hurt. To be lonely like that. To feel suffocated after watching countless episodes. The sounds would overwhelm him, his brain would feel pressure inside his skull. His chest would feel heavy.

He would want to do something else, talk to at least one person. But no one would be around. He would then want to law down on his bed and sleep to sleep his emotions away. So, even if it something as serious as announcing himself as the killer, he doubted it would hold any worth in comparison to Satan's. He was just... More active in the family. Much better and smarter than him. His eyes welled up with tears at the thought. Was it his own envy that ate away his heart, or was it because these thoughts were still unpleasant, despite of him accepting them as facts?

His tied hand formed into a fist and he yanked the restraint one more time under the angel's unreadable gaze. "...We established that you never went to the crime scene. It is no use lying about a seripus situation like this, Leviathan. Just tell me where you went, why you went, and when you went there. And you'll be free to go." Leviathan sighed at this, his shoulders visibly slumped. Though he was far from relaxed, he was at least calmer. He looked up at Satan's picture on the table for a brief moment and felt guilt for not being able to help anyone out. And then faced the angel. 

After giving his alibi and proving it to be true, signing a few documents, waiting for a while for Lucifer to do got knows what, he was freed from the detention center and his suspicions were cleared. On his way out, Lucifer did the mistake of tagging along with him, which resulted in him being hissed and yelled at by his younger brother. Lucifer did his best to stay calm, and he even attempted to apologize to his brother for... some reason. He didn't even know why he was apologizing, he didn't had control over the situation. 

"Your fucking brother- no, _son_ is in interrogation room and everyone sees him as a murderer because of his title!" Leviathan's horns and tail, which ue withdrew around 20 minutes ago, made themselves known to the world yet again by this point. His brain felt like it was getting crushed underneath the stress it was under. His orange eyes glowed intensely in the shadow of a tree they stood underneath. "I may be a good-for-nothing shut in and the disappointment of the family, but I at least worry about him! And you are saying sorry to ME!? Lucifer, don't make me break your nose and leave me alone."

"Is that a threat?" Words left Lucifer's mouth without him realizing it, he was appaled by the sudden change in his normally harmless, shy brother. "You aren't the only one who is strong, big brother." The demon of envy spoke out these words as if he was spitting them, and turned to his left to walk. The base of his horns pulsed loudly and caused him pain, he hissed yet again. All Lucifer could do was stare after him, dumbfounded. He sighed and went back inside the building when he felt his phone vibrate. It was a message from Michael to come back inside the building immediately.

Apparently, Satan tried to punch him for even considering the possibility him of being the murderer of a person he cared about very much. He felt exhaustion at his chest all of a sudden, not wanting to even take a step in there and deal with it. 

He stood next to the photos of the employees who died during duty all of a sudden, inspecting them one by one as if he wanted to kill some time while walking there. Even though he wasn't going to remember any of their faces or names, because frankly he didn't care about them too much, he still wanted to look. He was expressionless as he stared at the pictures. Some black and white, some sepia, and some coloured. Various hair, eye, skin colours, some with freckles and some with small dark spots on their faces. Skinny, fat, bad and good looking, women, men, neither... All of them were bound to he forgotten one day. It was just the reality, no one remembered them besides their death dates, or ceremonies.

He sighed and pulled out his expensive leather wallet all of a sudden, and picked out a small, rectangular picture behind his ID card. He inspected the young face on it, smiling rather brightly. The light brown hair and the honey eyes of his were a detail he still saw whenever he closed his eyes. How terrified he must've been throughout the whole thing, how he was doing now... Was he going to be forgotten in his mind as well? Would he still connect with another human, after what had happened? Was it going to be another century of grieving and having a huge elephant in the room? 

Sighing, he put his thumb on the picture and caressed it for a while. This picture always stood inside his wallet along with the rest of his brothers, it was a simple photo. Just in case if one of them lost his ID and they needed a photo of him to make a new one, or if he went missing. He quickly put it back when he noticed that other people were going past him, and glanced for the last time at the pictures on the wall. Forgetting wasn't the same as coping, he knew that. But the line between them was very blurry.

For the sake of this innocent boy that fell victim to the claws of his own kind, he was going to do anything in his power to avenge him in some shape or form.

\---

Almo remembered some of his past through some of the familiar events that happened around him, weirdly. They were vivid visions, sensations, smells, and sometimes even weird emotions. But the thing he remembered the most was his conversations with various familiar demons, and more specifically, the human dude that treated him like trash for the entire time he spent in middle school.

The kid's name was Ezra, if he remembered correctly. His hair was in a weird shade of grey, and he acted like the grumpy white old man that existed in every single neighbourhood he spent his life in. And his eyes were pretty dark, he sometimes wondered if they were dark brown or just black. Though he didn't care too much, he still found himself staring at them. And if often drew out annoyed looks from the other. He was shorter than him, but his physique was broader. He swimmed a lot and went to a course for it, and told him once that he wanted to become a professional swimmer in the Olympics to represent America. 

He liked to dream, that was for sure. Since the kid died after he fell off from a ship that moved in the middle of ocean by accident during 9th grade (when he was in a vacation with his parents,), his dream never came true. His feet was tied to a heavy brick, turns out his mother decided to murder him since she was delusional and believed that Lucifer had sexual relationships with his kid. The tragic fate of the boy made headlines, and with time, he was forgotten again as well. Just a number in he statistics.

But Almo still remembered a lot of things about the boy. He loved animals perhaps a bit too much. He owned 3 cats and 2 dogs from various breeds. His clothes were always covered in cat hair, which made Almo sneeze a lot whenever he sat next to him in English class, which they both detested. Even though the cat hair wasn't good for him, Almo never sat with anyone else but him. Their friendship was one-sided, it was mostly Almo that spoke and annoyed the boy. And got snapped at in response. Why did he do this to himself? He didn't know, maybe he felt lonely amidst the crowded classroom.

He didn't know why he remembered him all of a sudden while he calmly swimmed inside the bathtub Barbatos filled in for him, he froze in spot as if the memories were being uploaded inside his brain. It felt strange, but the memories he made with the boy wasn't unpleasant. Even though they seem like it. The butler, who had patched his feet up and was walking wobbly inside his own room with the comfort of knowing that no one was there to witness him, crouched down next to the tub with the pet shampoo.

"You got fleas again. And I hust brought you to the vet for that... That cost me 500 grimms you know?" There was an unusual, playful hint on his voice that evening. Something good must've happened. Seeing the butler with a faint smile on his face made him want to smile as well, but all he did was sticking only his head out of the water and stare at him curiously. The water was warm, but it felt cold around his feet. Maybe it was because water usually felt colder the deeper you went? He couldn't think about that at the moment.

The collar he still kept on (though Barbatos had loosened it since the cat was growing up fast, and he didn't want him to choke) stood next to the sink, the gold plate shining. Barbatos took some of the pet shampoo inside his ungloved hands, the purple nail polish he had on was chipping at the tips. Come to think of it, he never saw Barbatos repainting his nails in the room. Or a nail polish. Where did he find it? It looked cute on him, but also gave him an elegant vibe. The butler put the shampoo on the cat's neck and the top of his head, then the rest of it's body. 

"You're the most well-behaved cat I've ever seen... It is strange." He spoke, bopping him on the nose and smiling at the way how his eyes closed instantly at the feeling. _That's exactly what my plan is, sir._ Almo thought and felt water being poured down his head. He sat patiently, even though something inside him screamed at him to freak out and claw the shit out of Barbatos. Water didn't give him the same soothing exprience anymore. Rather, having wet fur felt disgusting. This aside, he was slowly starting to worry. First, he noticed that he couldn't read anymore. Second, he started to hate water. Third, he couldn't taste certain human foods anymore, and the foods that would normally attract him weren't appetizing anymore.

He was becoming a real cat.  
Once he stopped understanding people and forgot his name, everything would he over. He felt an anxious pit in his stomach forming, while Barbatos picked him up and, unfortunately, started to wash his abdomen and lower regions with a tissue. "As awkward this is, you aren't grooming yourself. Even though you always drink water and you are happy, nor you have have any health conditions. I am sorry, but you stink."

 _Woah woah woah woah woah! Dude, no! This is a felony in Europe! I can wipe my ass on my ow- GET THAT TISSUE OFF OF ME YOU FUCKING ZUCCHINI-_

"Ow..." Barbatos said and put Almo down after he scratched his hand with all his might and freaked out, squirming around to escape. The cat fell on the water and pulled himself back, swimming to the corner of the tub. Barbatos stared at his had. 3 angry lines were on top of his hand, along with bites and other scratches. Blood oozed out from the wounds, but the butler didn't seem to be fazed by them. Sighing, he washed his hand until the very mild bleeding stopped and went back to dealing with the cat. Sure, the shampoo burned his wound, but it wasn't too much to the point he had to take a break. He could endure it, it was like a two in the pain scale humans used.

"I am sorry. Come here, I'll rinse the soap." He said, and pulled the cat closer, washing it down with water until all the soap was gone, and most fleas had disappeared. Though he needed some additional combing for that. After rinsing the soap and getting rid of the water in the tub, the cat stepped out and shook himself to get rid of some of the water, then laid down on the towel nearby.

Barbatos was a little surprised at Almo's choice of places to lay down on, but he didn't question it and wrapped him in it burrito style. Almo just gave him a tired look and this caused the butler to chuckle a little. Why was he so happy today? Almo was slowly getting annoyed but being held in his arms like a baby wasn't the worst feeling in the world. Rather, he enjoyed it. Putting the edge of his paws out if the towel burrito just a little, he meowed at him. "I'll put you down soon." He said, and turned on the orange light bulb on the ceiling witb a small click. After he put the cat in the bed, he unrolled the burrito and started to dry his fur.

"...I don't like getting my hopes up." He said all of a sudden, and got up to plug the gair dryer he had into the power outlet right next to his bed. "Most of the time, I have the power to tell what will happen... However, this time, I am... afraid to know if I am right or wrong. Which is strange, I have never felt this way before." He turned on the hair dryer and started to use it on Almo, while the cat sat on the bed. It wasn't like he could go anywhere, Barbatos' hand on his back disabled him from doing so. While the loud sound of the dryer and the hot air of it filled the room, Barbatos' facial expression changed.

"...Almo is a simple kid. He only uses the surface level knowledge he has in his mind. To think that a painfully average, 99 percenter kid like him to suffer a fate like this... Not to mention that he is not completely dead, is honestly mind baffling." He was speaking a bit louder now. It was weird how he used present tense _Once I change back, I will make sure to repeat these words back at you._ Almo almost scowled, and turned to his side to help out Barbatos with the drying. "...I want to ask you a question."

Almo stared back at the man with an anxious, yet curious look.

"Are you... Almo Armbrecht? The murdered exchange student."


	12. Walk

It is safe to say that Barbatos didn't arrive to this conclusion that easily. It was... quite the journey.

Ever since his drunk stumbling back to his house (he had used the back door luckily, which saved him of the trouble of explain ing why he got to the castle, absolutely shit faced to anyone. Not that Diavolo would care, but it would still be a bad look), something was very off about this so-called cat be owned. He wasn't sure what exactly he did that could've ticked the cat off, but it was still a problem. When he woke up, he noticed thar one of the doors he had in his room was wide open. He merely got up with a bitchy pain inside his skull an closed it, then got to work after kissing the cat's little forehead goodbye. 

The first problem is the fact that Sunday, somehow, learned how to use the toilet in a day while he used the litter box up until now, and even flushed the toilet with his paw. He checked the litter box that day, and found that it was clean and never used ever since he last cleaned it completely. Now, it could've been a total coincidence that Sunday stepped on the toilet flush with his paws. But 3 days in a row was starting to get a little suspicious.

The fact that he was able to understand how to open the doors and windows as if it was a thing he learned years ago came second. Somehow, he figured out the lock on the window Barbatos had put and managed to re-open it with his paws alone. You needed 4 FINGERS to open that lock. How did a cat paw even managed to open it up? Well, if he stood up on his two legs and used both of his paws, he could've done it after some hard work.

Third part of this equastion made itself known after Sunday brought him a comb he needed when he complained about how tangled his hair was towards his mirror, to himself. But, he still brushed (heh) it off as a scenario where Sunday thought that the comb was a toy and wanted to play around with it. Cats carried their toys in their mouths if they like thar toy after all. But what's more confusing was when Sunday left after giving him the comb and went back to the bed to sleep.

Fourth sign was; Sunday could understand the concept of reflection. He turned his back when he saw Barbatos picking up a leash. He didn't make any sound while picking it up, since Sunday d e s p i s e d being put in a leash. So, how did he realize that he was picking it up? Did he just sensed someone else behind him? Was it his own pride as a cat, or he just didn't like being restrained? Barbatos didn't know.

The other things could be listed as;  
Sunday never groomed himself.  
Sunday liked eating vegetables for some reason.  
Sunday always turned away from him whenever Barbatos came out from the shower.  
Sunday never cared about other cats passing by, or birds that flew around.   
Sunday also got scared whenever he saw a bug or a rat around and ran away like his life depended on it.  
Sunday seemed to understand a lot of things that happened around him.   
And lastly, he tried to walk on two feet last Tuesday.

Barbatos was starting to freak out a little. One night, while he was dealing with one of the sweets Diavolo wanted to try out for a while now, he noticed something on his green tie. It was white, and thin. Almost like a hair. Taking a closer look at it, he concluded that it was cat hair. Not just any cat, his own cat with his usual green and white bowtie. Sunday. He took it away from his tie and stared at it for a while in thought.

If his suspicion was correct, this cat hair belonged to the dear person they lost a while ago. A person so important, that it left a huge scar on everyone and caused the Prince of Hell to pray for him. "How did he even get hair on my tie?" He wondered. He never picked up Sunday when he was in his uniform. Maybe Sunday laid down on it like he did with the clothing that was freshly out of the dryer. He was almost done with casting Almo's death aside and merely recall him whenever the topic of the investigation came up. 

He finally had someone, something to think about whenever he baked quietly like this. Whether it was about the time when Sunday accidentally dropped a couple books in the middle of the night, or the time when he found a walnut on the floor somehow and played with it as a toy. It was headache inducing, yes, but at least he wasn't alone. Up until he adopted that cat, the cat he found in the middle of the main hall of the castle, very cold, scared and possibly about to die, he didn't have a problem with being by himself. Most of the time, he didn't even have a chance to feel lonely. 

The only times he actually allowed himself to feel something other than stress or amusement (due to the bickering of his boss and his right hand man), was at night. Like most of us. He was a working man, a servant who devoted his life to his master until the day he took his last breath. His working times varied, sometimes he came home when the sun started to rise, and went back to work around 7 AM. He took his salary, used it on stuff he needed, and lived like that. However, whenever he finally let himself fall into a slumber, his last thought before he fell asleep was usually how monotone and quiet his life was.

It was as if he was a secondary character in his own life. Always watching from the sides and never directly interfering, unless he was asked to. He didn't have to worry about his future up until now. A simple look at a timeline could solve most things. But he was tired of using his power in this way. Knowing everything that has, will, and could happen was tiring and unexciting. Boring. A job that is only reserved for God. And he had no interest in it. He didn't want to look through them again, to see if it was right. Why did this possibility cross his mind in the first place? Now he was uneasy.

He let out a huge sigh for the god knows how many times today. He realized that the whipped cream line he was putting on the baked goods were a little too much, from squeezing the pack in his hands without noticing it. Wiping some of it off, he began redecorating the entire thing. Diavolo's afternoon tea could wait. While he dealt with the kitchen, a pair of soulless eyes, like a deep, dark hallway, watched him from the trees nearby.

He turned towards the window when he felt a cold, chilling breeze hit him all of a sudden, and noticed that the grass and the flowers in there had dried and withered.  
Anyway, that isn't important at the moment.  
Back to the present.

Almo sat in a sitting position very quickly at this question, looking up slowly. Something at the back of his throat slowly dissolved, as if a weight there had suddenly disappeared and left a cold, soothing feeling. It was weird, honestly. Even though that tight feeling he had on his throat whenever he saw his friends around speaking to him, without knowing that he was right there the whole time had kind of disappeared, the tight feeling in his chest still lingered. He opened his mouth to meow, but what came out what shocked him more than it did to Barbatos.  
It was his own voice.

"Took you long enough." He said, and then immedietly stumbled backwards in surprise, covering his mouth with his paw. Barbatos blinked once, twice, and after the processed the information he had just gained, he stood up abruptly. His eyes were wide, and his expression was very strange. It was like he didn't know whether to laugh, or show concern at what just happened. It was one of those instances where he was genuinely at at a loss. "Repeat that." He said and crouched down next to the bed, staring at him with a tail that sticked out from his back and two skeletal horns. 

"Jesus... D-Don't get close like that, like you're gonna kill me!"

\---

_Step, step, step..._

The flowers and grass beneath my feet continued to wither, just like everything I had touched before.

Devildom hasn't changed one bit. The same demons, the same stores, the same sky, and the same souls had gathered around, in an attempt to live together. Until the eventual Doom's Day arrives.

Under normal conditions, I would call them weak. Pathetic, even. My job is to put an end to the lives of every single living being after all. But, considering that the life itself is a gift from Father, I think it isn't wise to think like that.

No, let me rephrase that.

I can think whatever I want.  
I just cannot let it show through me. Because, at the end, no one cares about it. 

Whether your geelings apologies are disingenuous, no one would care if you keep it as a secret. Even if you kill someone out of pure malice and hatred, if you shed tears in front of the judge and say that you sre a changed person, that you deeply regretted everything you did, and dress up the right way, you would get a light punishment. 

Humans have this cursed thing called "empathy" and "pity", unfortunately. It is the weakness of humanity, and stops them from evolving into much stronger, better creatures that aren't just pack animals, the lowest part of the food chain from birth.

...Would what the me from days before would tell you.

For now, my mission isn't to take a soul and bring it to the Celestial Realm. My mission is, surprisingly, to help out a soul today. You may call it a direct order from Father, but I do not think so. It is more like a... How would you describe it... A feeling I had, that I wasn't supposed to have. My love for life has only deepened this way. I would bring them to the right place that isn't Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory.

Since I get bored very, **very** easily. 

So easily, that I sometimes wonder if I can even exprience the emotions of a normal angel.   
Mind you, nothing has changed. I am still very bored that that... pawn, took this long to realize what had happened. So, I am merely taking matters to my own hands and speed up the process a bit. You know, to help everyone out. 

While I walked around with a small figure under the wretched, disgusting wings I had, I could also hear someone else walking towards their demise. I could hear two voices, one thicker than the other, and much angrier. While the other one was oddly calm. I smile slowly, knowing everything.

"What do you want?"

"I am merely here to confess something."

"If it's nothing important, then leave me alone."

"Huh, and I thought you would be happy that I am here to tell you the identity of the killer."

"...If you're joking right now, I will bind you to the chairs inside the dungeons and pluck out the skin around your nails slowly, and then rip them apart."

"Jeez... I'm bored, alright? You are all a bunch of morons that are afraid of the possibilities."

"Cut the shit."

"Fine... It was me."

"...Wait, wait, wait, that's utterly impossible. What... What do you mean by that!? Are you mocking his death with this stupid confession!? Don't make me strangle you, Belphegor!"

"If you consult that stupid kid of yours, he would tell you that a murderer in mystery novels and movies would always yearn to be captured through certain means. I am simply doing the same, but without an elaborate plan that would get me to become the suspect. I am too lazy for that."

**"This isn't a mystery novel!"**

"I know."

While their bickering continued, I finally arrived at the window that has become the house of this little child. I stared at the scene before me, and noticed a rather pleasant scene. The butler had forgotten to close the curtains, so everything was clear as day. He was hugging the soul I had put inside this small kitten, and the kitten was desperately trying to get off from him. It was a comedic sight. I could bet the entire world that Duke Barbatos was shedding a few tears of happiness during that moment.

I consider my next step. I had originally came here to help everyone understand what happened and get Lord Belphegor to be guilty, by explaining everything that has happened. I also miss my own brothers. They are not in heaven at the moment. But for one; Lord Belphegor had already confessed to his older brother (that... sounds awfully strange) with a rather bland fashion, nothing intresting or exciting. And for second, Duke Barbatos had already realized what happened to the human. 

Now, what to do? What to do?   
Should I just allow them to figure out what they want by themselves?  
Hm... Duke Barbatos will first contact King- no, Mr. Solomon about the situation. Then, he will contact Prince Diavolo and Lord Lucifer. And then, everything will be over...   
Right? Oh well, only time will tell.  
But I am aware that the end result will be very surprising for everyone.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put a simple and obvious, yet vital clue in this chapter about what the fuck happened during the murder.  
> ○ 👄 ○


	13. One Half

The clock tower at the center of the Devildom rings 3 times every hour, and one time every 30 minutes. No one knows why it is designed that way, but it is helpful to keep track of time. The first time Almo had noticed this clock tower, he was immedietly drawn to it. Whenever they went there, he always took a picture of it with his D.D.D. he liked touching it, walking around it, and looking up at it until his neck hurt. He was like an excited child whenever he saw the tower from the crowd, and he was teased for it.

"Look, Barbatos! The tower is there!"

"I know."

"I'm going to take a picture."

"How many pictures of it have you taken already?"

"It looks different each time we come over here. The moon is shining right behind it, it would look fantastic..." He would give the same excuse every time, his cheeks flushing from how fast his heart would pound at the thought of the wonderful photo he was going to take. It weirded him out at first, like most things this kid did. He found happiness in very simple things. Like a smooth, warm rock he found on the side of the road. Or the general, night-life vibe of the Devildom. 

He had countless pictures of the neon lights all around the bars, dark silhouettes of random demons and the beautiful, colourful environment behind them... "When you are like this, you are slowing me down. I am 4 minutes behind my schedule." Barbatos would say with a troubled expression, his arms full of grocery bags while he waited behind him like a mother, waiting for her son to finish with whatever thing that caught his intrest. But still, Almo wouldn't care if he was an inconvenience to his oh-so-darling schedule. He did what he wanted, but in a harmless way. 

"...Hey, Barbatos. Put the bags next to me a strike a pose."

"What?"

"You heard me, I'm going to take a picture of you." He smiled, as if his request wasn't so ridiculous. He knew Barbatos didn't like being on camera, he rarely posted pictures of himself. Actually scratch that, his Devilgram account had only 1 picture of him, the rest was the photos of sweets and different kinds of classy foods he made, taken with a professional camera. Barbatos would usually decline a request like this, since he never knows what the other party may do with the picture. But just for this time... Just to not upset this kid.

"Fine then. Hold onto these." He said and put the bags next to him, fixed his hair and uniform, and remained classy as possible in front of the camera. Almo kneeled down on the ground and ignored the strange pain in his kneecap as he did so, and snapped a couple shots. Barbatos could see his eyes twinkling with happiness, a foolish, positive outlook in life just for that day. He didn't stop the smile that formed on his face in one of the pictures.

But that didn't matter anymore.   
He sat inside a dark interrogation room, under the shocked gazes of everyone important he knew. He kept his gaze fixated on his lap, he didn't need to see a pair of gold and red eyes staring at him with a mix of pain, anger, and confusion. The other 5 people, all demons, sat outside of the room with worried looks. One angel cradled someone dear to them in his arms, while the older human sat nearby, as if this whole thing didn't matter to him at all. The Prince of Heavens' brothers, Gabriel and Raphael stood outside, while the prince was inside to witness everything.

Barbatos stared down at his hands, which were on top of his lap. Stained with invisible blood. Smelled of an unrecognizable, red, thick liquid that no human liked seeing on themselves. He fixed his tie for the last time, while a large hand slammed it on the desk and caused the entire room to shake. His brow flinched out of reflex, he never liked seeing this kind of behaviour on other people. Not that he showed to other people that he cared.

"For your information, my dear friend," The voice of the Lord Of Pride rang in the room, very sturdy and threatening. "I am holding every last ounce of my will power to not smash your body on a coffin full of rusted spikes, and cutting your tail off entirely. Those scales would make nice ingredients for a make-up company."

Diavolo watched, while Barbatos felt the man's breath on the right side of his head, still keeping his head low. "There is no need to rush, Barbatos, You may not want to speak, but we need your testimony to put an end to this once and for all... You are deep in this thing enough as it is."

Michael leaned agganist the wall in the corner of the room with his arms crossed, and his wings hidden. Though his Halo was shining on top of his head out of instinct, due to the demonic tension in the air. It lit up the dim room a little, but it wasn't enough to cut the heavy air in there. He stared at the demon in question, and wondered how could he even do something as wretched as this. Because at that moment, he looked weaker than a kitten...

~~That is a horrible comparison, don't you think?~~

Barbatos swallowed quietly, finally looking up at the prince's eyes with a pale, expressionless face. But it was obvious that he was hesitant. Possibly scared, even. A guilty expression was displayed all over his face while he tried his hardest to keep his cool in this entire situation. To not freak out and blame himself, but the visions kept appearing inside his head. Mostly covered in a hue of black, but he could spot certain figures. He could hear people talking. 

_"To kill someone like that... Is that really what you want, you lapdog?" The demon spoke from where he sat down, behind the door. His tail swayed and thumped agganist the floor in a rhythm, oddly relaxing. He stared at a figure of himself and the demon from a dark corner of the stairs, unknown to everyone. He had come out of one of the doors in Lucifer's chambers, luckily the door was unlocked and he wasn't there. He looked out of the window, then the clock. 2:11 PM. April 12th._

_His other self looked guilty. Angry, and every other negative expression one could think of. He hated how this simple human was making him this fucked in the head. He was perfectly fine before. All by himself, all alone, living his life in peace. The life he devoted to the prince. Yet this stupid kid came into the realm and flipped his world upside down, which wasn't fun. It wasn't fun at all, not pleasant. He was a coward who was afraid of his own emotions. The emotions that came over him in the middle of the night, the emotions and thoughts that caused him to cut his own finger accidentally while he cut up fruits. The thing that made him cry and sniffle worse when he was cutting onions. He felt absolutely digusted at the thoughr of having a happy, healthy friendship with him. This kid... He was like his best friend. His brother. And he hated that._

_He hated having to deal with this kind of thing when he was busy with his own life. He didn't like feeling pain for him, at any time. That is why, instead of discovering the secret behind this stupid murder, he was killing him with a tool in between them instead. The tool being Lucifer's youngest brother, who had a resentment agganist every last human on earth due to the tragic events that have happened. He was a coward who wanted to take the easy route._

_The lights in his vision flickered and blurred, his head spinned. An unbelievable rush went through his chest as he stood just outside the room. His chest was beating like a drum, and the throbbing pain inside his head didn't help him either. He looked at his other self from the dark stairs, that other self held a rusted, old key inside his left palm that radiated a glowing, red light. It reeked of pride, which made the demon want to gag. "Just do as I say." His other self said, though his own voice didn't quite reach his ears through the pulse of his temples._

_"Oh, well. Alright... Waiting for your command." The demon shrugged, feeling very casual about everything. His other self looked out of it as well, though he looked much worse than the original. Calling this self as "Alter Ego" would be inappropriate. Even though it literally means "Other I", in here, both him and his other self are the same person yet they are physically seperate. One from the past, and one from the now, who had just entered this place to figure out what had happened._

_"I have stolen this key from Lucifer's chambers. It seems like he had made a key, just in case if something happened and he required someone to open the door for him. Making pacts take time and trust, so he... You get the point." His other self brushed it off and waved his hand dismissively, stumbling a bit while he did so. "...I believe this is a big opportunity for... both of us. Go downstairs, pick a weapon if you want to and get rid of that human. Isn't that what you wanted?"_

_"...I still have no idea what you want with this, but yes. I do want to kill that human." The demon slowly, lazily got up from here he saw down and brushed the dust in his clothes with his tail, smiling with the hair that had covered one part of his face. His fingers twitched, probably already excited to see human blood after so long._

_"Now, now... Will you be a good butler and open the door for me?"_

_"Don't forget your place, 7th born." His other self scowled, opening the door with a single click and allowing the demon to step aside. The demon took a deep breath and stretched his joints. After a brief celebration of his freedom, he turned at his other self._

_"Where's the human?"_

_"He went outside. He should be... around the shoe shop nearby, the one next to the stairs that lead to to the main street... Get a move on!" His other self yelled all of a sudden, and the demon just smirked at him. "Giving people orders to kill someone when you are still semi-drunk, not thinking rationally... You are driven by your emotions, like that stupid prince of yours. I guess you do have a malicious, selfish side too. You are a purely bred demon after all."_

_His other self didn't respond, and the demon started to walk downstairs. Noticing this, Barbatos made a run for it to not get noticed. He considered becoming invisible for a second, but no. The demon could sense magic. His only option was to get back as soon as possible._

_With his heart still ringing inside his ears, he ran inside the chambers of the first born, bolting through the bathroom door and getting back inside his own room in a matter of seconds. He fell on the floor and stood like that for a while, his face covered in sweat and fear. He was impossibly pale. After his breathing calmed down a little, he slowly sat up. His hands trembled, he couldn't help but feel the coldness around him in a very uncomfortable way. His demon form had flared out, his tail hitting on the door in anxiety. His pupils were dialated, and the skeletal horns on top of his head were spread wide. Sunday never woke up this entire time. He was a heavy sleeper for a cat._

_Barbatos hunched down and ran a hand through his hair. Confused, scared, conflicted, angry... Nothing could describe what he felt like at that moment. An immediate change in his emotions startled him as well, bringing burning tears inside his eyes. The entire room was splattered with blood, everything so red. So smelly, so fleshy, so disgusting. Various bodies of the same person were around. One hanging from the ceiling by his neck, one turned into paste from a car, one with a huge gash on his neck, still bleeding like a fountain, and one hunched over his toilet with a mixture of stomach acid and blood around the room. Burned to death, pushed into a wet pool with an powerful electric cord inside it, impaled with a bunch of metal pipes..._

_And when he turned his head around when he felt a head agganist his shoulder, he had to put a hand over his mouth to keep himself from yelling. The death from this timeline, with his fingers missing, his chest cut open in the shape of a cross, his eyes slightly open with a soulless look. He looked down at his lap when he felt something warm. A fresh, still beating human heart._

_And in an instant, just when he finally screamed to let it all out, the sound of a random demon servant, falling from the sky inside the castle's garden stopped everything. He must've got his wings stuck on an electric cord. The visions were gone, the shaking stopped, his demon form dissappeared._

_**What... What the fuck just happened?** He caught himself wondering, his one hand still over his mouth and the other one in his heart. His vision soon turned dark._

\---

"I am the true murderer. I told Belphegor to kill him. I..." Barbatos's expression seemed to change the more he talked about the incident, Lucifer had never seen him display this much emotion before. He looked afraid of the memory, closing his eyes tightly to make the visions dissappear. His fingers were grasping the fabric of his pants so tightly that his pink fingertips were completely white. Though that couldn't be seen underneath the white, wrinkled gloves he wore. His forehead was covered in sweat, and his shoulders were very tense. Why did those images had to appear?

Why did he have to understand tbe value of a human life this way?

Lucifer looked to Diavolo, not sure of what to do at this point. "...Go over on everything from the beggining." Diavolo's low voice was a silent sign of "Don't push him any further", and Lucifer nodded, preparing a notebook he had and putting it in front of the agitated butler. "...Write everything down in here, down to every last detail. Including your motive" Lucifer sighed as he gave the pen inside his breast pocket to him. Barbatos took the blue mechanical pen and blinked when he felt his eyes burning from how tightly he shut them. Taking a deep breath, he began writing.

**At around 2.30-3 AM/July 24th, I got up in my room and opened one of the doors in there after little thinking. I have used my power to manipulate timelines without permission from Lord Diavolo.**

**I went through Lucifer's room. I looked around a bit to find a clue about how to open it. I found a key inside the pillowcase with a note, and put the pillow back in. The note is in Belphegor's possession, it mentioned something about the door in the attic. After I got out, I made sure to close it behind me and hide the fact that I was ever in there.**

**I went upstairs in the attic, met Belphegor in there, and decided to get him out of his house arrest for my own personal gain. My motive was to get rid of the weakest exchange student, Almo A., and make sure that this exchange program was a failure. I was thinking of rising up agganist the Royal Family for a very long time, but I knew that opposing to the idea of an exchange would draw the suspicions on me.**

**So I decided to make a plan and kill him with a person I can shift the blame on, who would gladly listen to my commands. Belphegor ended up betraying me in the end.**

**Belphegor looked around and took a fillet knife from the kitchen when he overheard Satan, talking to Lucifer about the meal he was going to prepare and decided to frame him instead. But Leviathan ended up tagging along with Satan when he realized that the knife (which Belphegor stole from the kitchen) had gone missing.**

**He was informing me on what he was doing with the deal we had the whole time. He had gone to the corner and waited for Almo to show up, took him by his arm and purposefully stood at the corner of the camera frame while he killed him. He was planning to take his heart and run away to give it to me for the meal I was planning on preparing for Lord Diavolo's and Lucifer's dinner, but he ended up getting spotted. He left the scene afterwards, and ran away back to the attic. I locked him back and returned the key, and then fled to my own timeline.**

**After a while, I woke up once again and realized that the door was left open when I collapsed on the floor, and I re-closed it. That is how we committed the murder.**

"...I feel like you left one part out." Michael spoke for the first time, after he was done with reading the entire thing. He had come to the table halfway through Barbatos's writing. "If the door was open, how did Lucifer not notice that his bathroom door was leading to your room?" Diavolo guessed, and Michael didn't answer.

"...I wasn't in my room the entire day, it would make sense that I wouldn't notice it." Lucifer spoke with a semi-green face, gritting his teeth when he learned what this trash of a demon was going to do with the innocent Almo's heart. He wanted to puke, despite of eating humans before.

"No, not that. It's the other half of this mystery." Michael shook his head. "You are keeping a secret from us, Barbatos. You know where Almo's soul is, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "It is always the one you least suspect!"  
> -Me, writing this as I am making up everything as I go


	14. Skeletal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should really change the rating, don't i

"Stray, can I ask you a question?" Almo sat down in the usual wall he had grown close to, watching the sorrowful sun setting and leaving behind a bleeding sky behind it. The wall they stood on was cold, surprisingly. Maybe it was because it was on the west side of the castle, so it didn't take any sun during the day. "Of course." Stray responded while sitting down on a nearby tree, also watching the sunset through the leaves and the pink flowers of it.

"...Did we know each other when I was still alive?" He asked without looking at him, eyes fixated on the horizon. Stray lowered his head, and gave into a small smile, his tail swaying around. "...I don't remember my name." Stray said all of a sudden, getting a soft gasp out of the other cat. "I can't say for sure, if we've known each other. Almo... Almo... Almo, what wonderful name. Nourishing and kind. Mostly s feminine name, but yours is the masculine form. The feminine form also means "apple" in various languages. Sweet as an apple..." 

"You're creeping me out." Almo commented hesitantly, prying his eyes away from the sunset just a bit.

"Haha, sorry about that. I have a thing for names, as you can see." He said, but he wasn't sorry at all. Rather, something unfamiliar sparked inside his eyes. The chain in his collar dangled in the air and shined brightly. A bitter smile came across his lips. "When I cannot remember my own, I try to help other cats like you... The reason why Azrael gave you a second chance at life wasn't just because you were the exchange student. You... deeply regretted something, or felt despair as a result and desperately ran away from it. Right? But at the same time, you didn't want to die." 

Almo swayed his tail around, smacking it on the red stone a couple of times. "You're right." He said after a few moments. He closed his eyes and felt a few memories coming to him, from the distance. The videos sent to him by other demons, those bloody pictures... The screaming of his parents every night. The death of his pet, the loneliness he had to through school. All that harassment, the nights he spent hiding underneath his bed, his flinching when he heard something shattering and more screams as a result, the lonely lunch breaks he would have while others smiled and talked right next to him, not bothering to include him in the conversation under any costs...

And finally, the pure terror he felt by that attack. The attack that planted itself right inside his soul. He could still heart the bloodly, fleshy sounds of his organs moving around. His heart being ripped out with a heavy crunch and splatter, and still feel the pain of his fingers when they were chopped off in certain places. The demon that murdered him paid no mercy to him. Not even for a moment, a bloodthirsty animal, looking down on his prey. His food, with a body that was not meant to fight agganist him. All this time, he tried his best to keep himself calm. Act like nothing bothered him, since he was still alive even if he was an animal. Like he wasn't afraid of death.

 _But it hurt so much you know._ The voice inside his head, his thoughts, said in a tearful tone. Even though tears couldn't leave his current eyes. 

Sensing this current feeling the younger had, Stray hopped down from the tree. "Your friend... That butler." He said, as the orange and red light of the sky reflected on the white parts of his fur, giving him a sad, yet warm look. "You saw what happened to him, right?"

Humans had a tendency to deny the truth, no matter the cost. They hated to confront the truth, and feel the disgusting pain of reality once again. However, when someone patches up a wound haphazardly, there is a high change that it would leave a scar. Or lead to an infection. When you re-open that wound, get rid of the diry bandage, clean up the wound properly and patch it up nicely, the wound would take longer to heal but it would get a lot better with time. 

Almo, unfortunately, never liked to think about that. His heart just didn't like the thought. Life wasn't so serious for him, that's why he ignored these thoughts in the first place and walk around with badly patched wounds instead of clean bandages. 

_I refused to believe that the man I spent my months with, who showed me a lot of new things I haven't seen before, was the same man who ordered someone else to kill me. He went to the castle that morning and told me that he was going to settle this once and for all, and apologized to me. I asked him why he was apologising, but he left without saying anything else._

_This could only mean one thing. And you already know that. Inside of that act he puts on everyday, lies a man that is just... normal. Just like everyone. As if he never had the power to control timelines. He gets annoyed at certain things, he has favorite foods, he has celebrities that he dislikes, he has people he loves and holds dearly to himself. He has a bedhair, he sleeps in awkward positions that I can't help but wonder if his neck hurts at all..._

_He is really gentle in his nature. He is very gentle, and he knows how to keep his distance from people because of it. I don't want to believe that he is a bad demon. There is just no way he would commit such a heinous act purposely, even if he did kill humans in the past for sure... I didn't even know that feeling a despair like this was even possible. I just want to live a normal life with my new friends. My family._

_But all of this is becoming too much for me to handle. I... Just want to lay down. And close my eyes. Then think of nothing._

"What difference does that have from death?"

"...Huh?"

A cold voice, intimidating along with comforting, rings right next to him.   
He turns towards the source and finds a pair of blood-shot, green eyes staring at him. It was an angel but his two pairs of wings were broken, bent, while the gigantic 3rd pair covered them from the back. Those wings looked more like a burden to him. He seemed to absorb all the life around him. The grass beneath his feet started to wither and rot. The leaves on tree right next to them began to turn into an ugly red an brown colour, and crunched. Then fell on the ground. Even Almo felt threatened by this entity, his survival instincts screaming at him to stay far from him. 

"You..."

"I brought a present for you." He spoke, closing his eyes for a moment. To rest a bit. It's been a while since he walked this much, since he mostly flew around. Something poked out from his wings, but it was covered with a thick layer of feathers. They looked to be the center of this (quite literally) deadly aura. "This might seem unappealing to you, but... It is my job to prevent humans from taking their lives, or live in vain until I come to their door. Who are you to make me forcefully take the soul Father has planted in you... Was what I am expected to say. But I don't really care. Many people don't believe me when I say this, and they die as a result. I can't force anyone to listen to me, unfortunately..."

"Y-You sure talk a lot..." Almo stuttered, and scooted back from him as much as possible, his pupils going so wide that his eye colour couldn't be seen. His ears folded backwards, and his entire fur puffed up. His voice came out in a hiss. 

"Ah, I am sorry. Little one." He said and gave him a small smile. It was the most beautiful Almo had ever seen. An innocent smile, as if he never put an end to the existence of thousands, millions, billions of creatures that lived in this world before. As if he was a normal person, with no special characteristics. But that smile also his something very graceful behind. A love for life. A love for beauty of being alive. How desperately these living creatures clung to it. He loved it, to the point of obsession. 

"This might look very unappealing and awaken bad memories in you, but... It is crucial. They have lots of things to ask you, and you will be the one to put an end to this. Not your friend Duke Barbatos."

"D... Duke?"

"Barbatos, 7th demon Mr. Solomon had a pact with. Also the Duke of hell... Anyway." He moved on to the next topic, clearly showing no intrest in who Barbatos is. "You might not want to look, but you have to look. And stay put."

"What- What do you mean!? Tell me what's going on! Azrael, right? Why are you here? To take my life for the second time!?" He yelled at his face, and scooted back even further, his head pounding with a weird ache. "I... Please, no more. Don't make the situation complicated enough as it is! I just want to live in peace!" 

Azrael's green eyes shined at these words, which seemed like pleasure. A delight. He put his cold hands on his arms and hugged himself, a wide smile on his purple lips and insanely pale skin. "Seeing how protective of your life even after all this time... Ah, it pleases me so much. I love it."

"Y... You're so creepy..." Almo began shaking, staring at him with horrified eyes. "Why won't you leave me alone?"

~~"Why won't you leave me alone!? I-I don't give a damn about your friendship, or kindness!"~~

~~"There is no way I can let you go on that vacation! Your mother is fucked in the head, she'll kill you the moment you're alone!~~

~~"What was that about my mom, you punk!?~~

~~CRASH~~

~~My mom is perfectly stable," PUNCH "she would never kill me!" PUNCH "She only disciplines me" PUNCH "when I do shit wrong!" PUNCH~~

~~"Ow! Ow! Ezra- EZRA STOP!~~

~~"S-So stop getting in my family business!! I hate you, my disgust towards you will never change! I'll never consider you my friend, let alone someone I can trust with my family! Not when you...! Not when you're so... So happy, optimistic... When you run away from your problems all the time!"~~

~~"You're hurting me!"~~

~~"Just... Why do you care so much about my well being? When I treat you like this? I only hurt you on purpose, don't I? Are you that much of an masochist?~~

~~"Punch me all you want, the high schoolers at the other side of the street are much stronger than you... No matter what you do to me, I will always find a way to annoy you. Always. You're... ugh, you do punch pretty well though... You're my friend, and that is the end of it."~~

~~"...Let go of my hand.~~

~~"No."~~

~~"I'll being a first aid kit for that disgusting face of yours..."~~

~~"Will you kiss my wounds as w- OW!!!"~~

"I am sorry about that... I get that a lot." Azrael gave one last grin before he sent a warning look to him to brace himself. "Remember, you have to look."

"...Fine. Whatever." He said and took a deep breath, as the angel slowly took something hidden out from his wigs. Slowly, it became more and more clear what it was. First, a small hand. Then, a shoulder. Slowly, a skull brown, the torso, the legs, and finally the feet. Almo's heart dropped to his feet, buckets and buckets of boiling water poured down on his head.   
He couldn't even let out a sickening, terrified scream as he looked at the figure in the death's arms.  
There it was, wrapped in the grey and gold outfit it wore. Its eyes closed, and its body limp. Without a soul inside it.

Slowly, the figure began growing muscle and fat, wrapping the bones of it. Then, blood vessels. The nerves, organs. Then layers of skin grew out of nowehere and covered everything, fading from red, to pink, to a white colour. Soft, light brown hair soon took place of the scalp, and the figure laid there with it's new form. Almo's eyes were only fixated on the body, wondering where to even start. He opened his mouth, and tried to scream. But no voice came out. 

"This face is familiar, yes?

"I... I-I... You..." 

"I know it it is shocking." The death himself carcassed the light brown hair under his palm, staring at it. "I had to use the opposite of the power I had. Creating. Ressurecting. Instead of destroying... All thanks to my friend, my dear friend, who is the life itself." The shine in his eyes intensified, along with the death it radiated around him. He was excited, for some reason. It was so, so creepy. So messed up, that it made Almo want to puke.

"However, this body is nothing but an empty shell. It is not in my intrest. So, I've come to take your soul, and put it back inside."

"What...?"

"You heard me. I will turn you back, as a present."

"But why?" He asked, frowning. "Why would you do something like this to begin with?"

Azrael sighed, and put the body down. He kneeled down next to it, and closed his eyes.   
"The cause doesn't matter."

\---

I watched over you ever since your birth. 

You were the cause of an unexpected events, and took a huge impact on your family's life. Their economical well being was destroyed for the first year of your life, and you were nothing but an inconvenience. But, being the selfless and happy child that you were, you never put a second mind what they could've felt. Which, I do not blame you for it. I knew why you were going to die, who you were going to become before your death.

This didn't mean that I wasn't interested your antics, or saw you as one of the regular mortals out there. With years, you shifted, changed opinions, your way of thinking. And turned into a young person that is just trying to figure out life, just like everyone else. I knew that you were going to become a part of this program, and at first, I felt hesitant with approaching you. I could tell by looking at your face that you saw me as a quiet, mysterious freak you see in every group of people. Yet you also came over that bias, and tried to become friends with me. You tried your best.

"So, all we have to do is look for his cat, right?"

"I didn't even know Barbatos owned a cat in the first place... He hid it well."

"Are you sure Barnatos hasn't kicked the bucket? The fact that his cat is Almo is kind of convenient. His confession is also an obvious lie, he has no reason to oppose agganist Diavolo. And do something like this... so out of blue. So suddenly. This entire scheme seems so rushed."

"He'll hear ya if you keep your voice too high."

"Mammon, your opinion on this matter is invalid and I don't give a shit if he hears me. So shut up."

"Hey!"

But in the end, all you got was a violent attack that was caused by the selfish me, who made that decision in a hazy world between drunkness and my own emotions. Which shouldn't even be displayed outside in the first place. I have no place to ask for forgiveness, or look you in the eye. The guilt that placed itself inside my heart, the un-removable stains that lingers in my hands are crushing my insides with the sickening sounds of flesh and pulsing. Was that also what you felt like when you died?

I hate you.  
Yet, for some reason, I can't help but hug you back when you hug me tightly in front of everyone like this.

My eyes have been widened in shock when I heard your voice, loud and clear in the hallway in which I was being led to the dungeons I spent a good amount of time in, torturing the worst criminals in the realm. I hear loud footsteps, screams and the sound of a bag dropping, a bottle shattering on the floor, and cries. I turn back hesitantly, and see your face, flushed from all that running around and your forehead dripping with sweat. Your eyes I haven't seen in ages other than in photographs, inside the gown I put you in after washing your dead body free of blood stains. 

Your face wasn't pale. Your eyes weren't an empty corridor, and your hands didin't fall to your sides like a collapsing sand castle. Your hair was disheveled, instead of the way I combed it before I put you inside that basket. Your facial expression was pained, your eyes wide, and your hands trembling. You looked terrified, angry, shocked. All these emotions swirled around your chest, and all I could do was stare in awe. I heard Lucifer yell, and run to your side. A familiar figure walked behind you, and put his hand on your shoulder.

"Azrael..." I heard Michael's voice right next to me, even he looked surprised. "Brother... Where were you?" He said and ran towards them as well, considering what to say. Lucifer put a hand on your head and cupped your cheek to make sure he wasn't dreaming, while his brothers swarmed around you and tried to convince themselves that they weren't dreaming. Diavolo was surprised as well, but he kept his composure.

"I- I... Lucifer, Mammon- FUCKING STOP! I got business to do!" You yelled, frustrated with all the attention on you. But could you blame them? I heard Asmodeus start crying afterwards, along with a few hiccups from Beelzebub. Hearing his friend's death was caused by his own twin, along with seeing him after for so long like a dream-come-true, he was so lost. An emotional shock was all over the room, like a broken cord that is tied to a power plug in a big puddle of water. I found myself unable to form a coherent thought at the moment, only staring at you.

"Barbatos!" You yelled with the voice I despised. "You...!" Your tears welled up inside the eyes I hated. You took a few steps towards me, who was handcuffed and had one arm hold in a tight grip by the prince himself. The brothers stepped backwards to give you some room, as you stared at me. You took one step closer. Then one more. And at a rush, you suddenly launched towards me and hugged me, pulling me by my back in an iron grip. So much that I felt my back actually hurt. 

Your hair was the only thing I could see, I couldn't see your face because you buried it on my chest, like an idiot. Who would hug the mastermind of their murder? There must be something very wrong with you, if that is the case. "Let me go." I say, and turn my head away. If I stared at you for long, you might just dissappear again. I might just kill you again, even with my presence. I don't want to be a person you can talk to, get close to like this. 

"No, no I won't. You won't tell me what to do!" You protested, it almost drew a laugh out of me. Hearing your voice in a very angry, almost scolding tone in a situation like this was just comedic.

"Almo, you're making everything harder for everyone. First of all, why are you alive?"

"Stop changing the subject!" You turned to Lord Diavolo, still holding onto my collar. I finally saw your face, how desperate you looked to solve everything. End everything, and live like the old times. We all knew why, and could understand how you felt at that moment. How panicked and confused you are. "Diavolo please listen to what I have to say! I am sure no one has to go to jail or anything! I... I don't want anyone to suffer, I am alive! See!?" You took Lord Diavolo's hand, and put it on the left side of your chest. 

Lord Diavolo seemed... shaken. 

To say the least.

Because for just a moment, a milisecond, his hand flinched when he felt your heartbeat.

\---


	15. Juice

_Years have passed ever since that day. The day, in which my soul was put back to where it belonged without Father's permission, and Azrael's free will._

_You may wonder how he could even do this, angels do not have free will after all._

_..._

_Hm, let me give you a few minutes to think. You will be left alone while the clock ticks right next to us._

_No, no. Don't worry, you don't have to rush. Just sit down somewhere, take a deep breath. Or don't, if you are in a crowded bus or train. You do not want to inhale a bunch of people's CO2 or something. Or their smell of sweat. Ugh, people really need to shower. Just the thought makes me want to puke, and get a restraining order agganist everyone who doesn't do that._

_Anyway, putting those unwanted thoughts aside..._

_As I said, you may want the answers to this question. How and why exactly he even did all this, and the reason for it. I'll tell you, don't worry. This wouldn't be a proper epilouge without giving a full explanation on what happened, right?_

_Let's start with Azrael's motive._

_A question first: Do you think that god watches over the World and Heavens 24/7? And was aware of everything that have happened? If your answer is yes, then you have way too much hope in this world, dear reader. However, if your answer is no, congratulations!_

_You have a brain._

_You didn't hold an umbrella over your head when god handed out brains to each human he created._

_God does not watch over everything that is happening in the world. If he felt the need to, he wouldn't have made the desicion to make the 3 main races perfectly capable of looking after themselves and make sure that they can deal with their own future. 8 billion humans, billions, and BILLIONS of animals, plants, angels, demons, microscopic beings, everything... He wouldn't deal with everything. No one would. He created Adam and Eve, then fucked off to the rest of eternity..._

_Is at least what I think. You can never be perfectly sure, but nothing has happened so far. This is the only explanation, since Azrael CLEARLY acts on his own will and doesn't care what his creator says, if he even speaks to him, that is._

_Azrael took advantage of this fact and started to put souls of the humans he deemed as "good enough" into animal bodies when they died, and wiped their memories in the process. Even though they thought this was their first life, they soul exprienced certain lives before. This is the whole concept of Deja-Vu... Wait, we already went over this. Check the earlier chapters if you don't remember it. I don't like repeating myself. The point is; Azrael, The Angel of Death who is responsible for delivering passed souls to the other realms, found a loophole in his job._

_If you haven't delivered a soul into a realm already, you can do whatever you want with it. Same with pacts. A demon you have a pact with will claim your soul after you died, and do whatever they want with it. Maybe they'll eat it, maybe they'll keep it as a souvenir. However, once a soul passes between two realms, it is impossible to take them back. That would be resurrecting the dead, which is strictly forbidden. What did our adventurous and irresponsible Azrael did then?_

_If a certain soul caught his eye, he passed it to another living being. Typically during birth. What happened to the soul that was inside the other living being then? It simply dissappeared. Never to be seen again. New-born souls aren't worth much, unfortunately. So no one cares about them. Unfortunately, the process is shaky. It is like passing a glass of water to another with shaky hands. Some of the liquid spills over while the remaning goes inside the other glass. Metaphorically, we can call this spilled liquid a portion of our memories. Most of it, in fact. The spilled liquid is wiped off, and you have to settle with the remaining._

_If it's too confusing... Nah, it isn't. It's simple. Let's continue._

_My memories were mostly in tact, enough for me to know that I was a human once. However parts of it were missing. Since I was lucky (and unlucky) enough to be in Devildom and was killed there, Azrael decided to... Play around a little._

_He created this situation in which I rapidly started to lose my memory. Going with the liquid metaphor again; He shook the glass my soul was in, and caused it to spill little by little. I lost my ability to read, my taste buds have changed, I started to hiss whenever I got scared, showed signs of being a regular cat, et cetera. Bastard did it on purpose, and it was just a game to him. A game to ease his boredom..._

_That's what he told me, at least. The first night where I was a human again. Parts of my missing memories are gone, unfortunately. But I can re-learn them._

_That night, things surprisingly... Moved smoothly._

_Or maybe I interpreted this entire thing wrong, or maybe I was lying. Honestly, nothing matters when you are a 22 year old man, fresh out of of university with a degree in English Literature. Holy shit... Times moved fast ever since then. It's been 7 full years ever since I started writing this. And now I am about to finish it. I can't believe it._

_If this whole explanation was enough; I want to reflect on the "near-past" from this point on. Starting from where I eventually left that hallway with my friends, leaving Barbatos and Diavolo there, and what happened to Belphegor and Barbaros. How they are doing._

_My pleas of forgiveness for both Belphegor and Barbatos didn't really work, unfortunately. Because after a while, I was forced to let him go and left that room with new tears in my eyes, with Asmodeus' arm around my shoulder. No matter how much I tried to convince them that it was a lie, Diavolo didn't listen. Which, I can't blame him._

_Barbatos and Belphegor have already signed their confessions, and Devildom Court of Law was waiting them. Which was most likely going to give a guilty verdict of "1st Degree Murder", "Treason Agganist Diavolo", "Un-Lawful Torture" which is a thing in here for some reason, "Direct Intervention with Inter-National(?) The Exchange Program", "Killing With Monstrous Intent", and "Abuse of Political, Magical, and Physical Power". Why the fuck would there be a law for "Killing with Monstrous Intent" in Hell for all places?_

_In short, their case files were pretty crowded. It looked like a fucking novel. And it made major headlines in Devildom when the court was in session. My grave back in the human world was destroyed as if it was never there, my family had no idea it happened in he first place (thankfully), and everything was good. Right?_

_Nope._

_I felt like shit._

_Pure shit._

"I... I ain't dreaming, right?" Mammon questioned for the nth time that day, and hugged him closely. Almo sighed, and put his head on the taller man's shoulder, while tapping his foot agganist the floor in a rythm. Just like the first time this story began. He stared on top of the fire place, and noticed that the memorial they had for him was gone. His D.D.D and jacket was given back to him, that picture was taken out of it's frame and was put back inside a baby blue one instead. The presents were also gone, he wondered where they were for a second before fixating his eyes on the floor. "You're not dreaming. Now shut up."

That must came out a bit harsher than he intended, but he was growing tired of this constant attention ever since he showed up. He played around with his D.D.D for a while. It's been a while ever since he last saw it. His Devilgram account was saved, and he decided to look around a bit. This whole ordeal was going to be hard to explain, seeing someone alive after their death was hard to explain of course. Diavolo told him that he didn't need to worry about anything, and as the crown prince of Devildom, he was going to think of something to get him out of this situation. Lucifer was absent, probably off to talking with Diavolo.

"...Oh, I have a bunch of new followers." He murmured, and got a strange look from Satan.

"You just came back to life and that is the first thing you care about? No telling us what happened from your perspective?" The 4th born raised one of his eyebrows and leaned on the table. "Everyone in this room is waiting for an explanation."

"Satan, Almo has no fault in this. Your tone is really accusing..." Asmodeus sighed as he let his hands travel on Almo's hair, to which the younger boy leaned in without thinking. Noticing Mammon's hurt puppy eyes, he put a hand on his head and made him lean agganist his chest and then put an arm around his shoulder. He ignored the greedy demon's bashful protests, and stared back at Satan. 

"I woke up at the castle's hall. I was a two-week old kitten. Then Barbatos found me there."

"All this time, you've been with Barbatos?"

"Yeah. Remember the cat you took in for a day?"

Satan frowned a little to remember, and then a shocked expression took over him. Then mortified, and then a heavy blus from embrassment. He put a hand over his face and turned away from him. Little by little, his action filled his head, he hugged that cat, pet it, talked with it, and all that time, it was able to understand him? "This... This is so embarrassing that I want to **kill myself.** " His expression said, and Almo felt himself cracking into a smile.

"Wait... So when I tried to dress that cat up and it scratched my face- Oh my, that was you!? Almo, how could you!?"

"And when I cried, ya were there too!?"

"So you admit that you were crying?" Almo raised one brow, mimicking Satan just to torment him. His smile widened when Mammon denied it and Asmodeus teased him over it, Satan also gave comments here and there. As much as his chest felt tight over everything he saw, as much as the buzzing inside his head continued, he still missed this usual noise inside the house. He was worried about one person though.

Beel, who's been sitting at the corner of the couch without saying anything. He was so quiet that everyone forgot he was in the room. Their eyes met for a moment, and Beelzebub quickly turned away. There was a lot of emotion in his eyes, as he was never good with concealing his emotions. His movements were sharp and fast, he almost seemed uncomfortable with being in the same room as him. He soon murmured something about going to the kitchen and got up, his shoulders a bit more slump than usual. Almo waited for a while before saying he was going to drink some water, and also got up, leaving three demons still arguing around.

The buzzing in his head intensified as well as his heart rate. The feeling inside his chest almost made him want to puke. This body was once covered in bugs, dirt, corpse germs, larvae. It once rot and turned into nothing but a pair of connected bones. He felt disgusting, the fact that it was brought back with a power borrowed from life itself, by the angel of death, made him feel uneasy. Unnatural. As well as the talk he was going to have with Beelzebub. He didn't want to think of all the outcomes around, but his mind kept racing and racing. He clutched his chest, while that hand trembled. He was still wearing the clothes he wore at his casket, gold and grey made from pure silk. It felt unholy, corrupted his already wounded soul.

"...Beelzebub." He called out to him, and the demon visibly flinched. His back was turned at the counter, but he wasn't preparing anything to eat. He never used his name outside of serious situations, so it was understandable that he wasn't used to it. Beelzebub slowly turned at him, shyness in his eyes. It wasn't a cute one though, of course not. It was fainthearted, diffident, timid... An upset one. "Did you need something?" He said and turned away again.

"...I never met Belphegor. I don't remember much of his face, except he had the same eyes as you. Tell me about him." Almo walked over to the fridge while he talked and took two Devildom beer cans from there. He wasn't old enough to drink yet, but this was an exceptional situation. All of a sudden, he wished there was a way to communicate without words. At least the ones he used on a daily basis. Maybe... Maybe a different language. Maybe emotions had different languages for them, each one unique to itself. Hard to translate, but very meaningful when you get to know it. He wished there was a specific word for the feeling of sunlight agganist his cheeks.

The sorrow, despair of death. The demonic and geine-ish shapes he saw in the woods or dark streets at night. The love you feel for someone, so much that when you two seperate for various reasons, you want to ask them anything just to hear their voice. Like if they watered the plants, gave food to the stray cats, or which bridge or bus they used today. The warm, familiar feeling you get when you hear that one song, a combination of the traditional music from your homeland to modern pop. The type that makes you feel like there is a local steet seller that sells warm sahlep or tea every winter, or the loud voices of the people who sell lunch made out of cheap rice, some meat. Or sometimes boiled chickpeas. In a huge glass container with cheeks, with plates and cutlery next to it in bazaars for the local workers there. 

Or in this situation, a combination of the string of unpleasant feelings Beelzebub felt for his brother, and his innocent friend. The dilemma he was in. Life would've been much easier if there were specific words for these types of feelings. Maybe there are. But, he just doesn't know them. There are too man unknown sensations, feelings. 

Beel quietly took the can and opened it, than drank everything in one gulp. Almo opened the can and sniffed it, and resisted the urge to scrunch his face. It failed miserably, as Beelzebub smiled at his expression vividly.

"Sorry for not liking alcohol." Almo mocked the smile on his face and took a sip out of the drink, and immedietly spat it out in the sink. It got everywhere, and he began coughinf violently when some of it went down the wrong pipe. It was too sour, too bitter for him. It tasted like stomach acid, not that he knew how it tasted like. Beelzebub got close to him and put one hand at his back, rubbing it. "It's okay... You don't have to drink it. You can have some juice."

"I'm-" _ahck_ "-not a chil-" _eugh_ "Everyone who drinks should be executed! Diavolo- Pass the order damn it!"

Beelzebub couldn't help but smile widely, nothing about him had changed. Even his inability to stay serious for half an hour stayed the same. "Grape juice it is then." He re-opened the fridge and got a carton of grape juice, putting it inside a random glass he found laying around. He chugged the remaining beer and threw the can in the trash, then gave the glass to the poor boy, who was still salty over the disgusting taste. 

He drank some of the juice, smiling at the artificial grape flavour and the sugary sour taste of it. Though he liked cherry juice the best, grape juice was fine too. A comfortable silence went past them like a breeze from the open window right next to them, sending goosebumps on younger's arms. He drank the juice like he was drinking and swallowing his feelings, ignoring the lump that was building up inside his chest every so often. He drank and drank, then poured himself one more glass. The whole time, Beel watched him. Obviously thinking of ways to talk about his twin brother, who murdered the very same person that asked to know more about him.

While he was busy with thinking on that, the buzz in Almo's head was growing like a cacophony. Like a distorted back ground music, echoing inside his brain in the least appropriate times. It was impossible to understand the melody, but it was there. Whenever he grew anxious, angry, annoyed. It seemed to fade whenever he calmed down. But now, it was louder than ever. Even though the room was silent. The sourness left other things in him other than the taste. It left a feeling he hadn't felt before. He felt his throat knotting and clumping, shaking like he was stuck outside his house in 2°C weather during winter. Buzzing, shaking, trembling, thumping... 

It was starting to overwhelm him. The first thing he tasted properly, that went to his stomach for real ever since the last breakfast he had months ago, was this glass of juice. Tears formed inside his eyes as he put down the glass. The tongue that he could taste things with, two pairs of eyes that saw the world in proper colours, a height in which he could face others with, hands that he could grasp things with, and feel them properly, ears that were on the two sides of his head and didn't twitch at every single sound...

He just realized this wasn't all a dream. He was back to normal. He was human this whole time, his entire goal. But why did everything felt so unnatural? Was it because he wasn't adjusted to it yet?

No... He already knew the answer.

His breath hitched and he sniffled, looking down in shame. Not wanting to show his face that was breaking apart with each shaky sigh and tears that came out. He put his hand on the counter in a fist, as his shoulders shook. He felt someone embracing him, pushing his hand on their chest. He hugged them back by the curve of their back, crying into the hard, stone-like chest in front of him. "Beel... T... The juice..." He tightened his grip, crying openly now. His sobs were muffled thanks to the fabric, but this was the first time he had cried this hard ever since the death of his friend. His funeral. "It tasted delicious... Really delicious!" He hicced and screamed to Beelzebub, hitting his back with his fists.

Beel's warm hands traveled on his head and slowly pet it, looking towards the ceiling. The sobs that echoed inside made his eyes water as well. It was sob of such sorrow, that it was contagious. His twin brother was trapped in the attic this entire time. He ended up being a murderer, and he wasn't even been able to talk with him properly ever since his arrest. All that time Belphegor spent with him, those hugs and conversations, all happened when his brother had already dirtied his hands with the crimson blood of his dear friend. A defenseless human. Just a day or two before the joyful celebrations that were about to happen for the said human. And there is also the fact that this human's soul was very close to them this entire time, and it even visited them. But he wasn't there.

He had no idea how to feel about the situation anymore.

He took a deep breath and let two tears stream down his face, confusion, sorrow and a gratefullnes covered his entire face as the two stood there together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, instead of sahlep, street sellers used to sell boza up until the 90's in Istanbul. Boza was a very popular, fermented (sometimes sweet or sour), pale yellow drink that has a thick consistency. It goes well with leblebi (roasted chickpea) and cinnamon on top.   
> Since any type of alcohol was banned in Ottoman because of religious reasons, people usually put alcohol inside boza and said that it didn't have any alcohol in it. Since it was a low amount, a person had to drink more than 6-7 cups, depending on the amount, to completely get drunk.  
> The drink gets sour and spoils easily during summers, so it was usually made as a warm drink during winters and was sold around that time.  
> Those street sellers aren't around anymore :")


	16. FINALE: Humiliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ma'am, I have 0 knowledge in German. I have never once read a german sentence and was actually able to understand it, since I was never familiar with the language. This is why Almo has little knowledge on his own culture and language, and was raised in another country. But since this is the last chapter, I wanted to include a few german sentences. They will be in the end notes.

_Today, something very unexpected happened._

_As our own world, courts in Devildom last for a long time. Sometimes for 10 years, sometimes for an entire century (they measure time with centuries after all, so it is nothing for them). I was about to take these notes and then go to a publisher. Maybe they would like it and publish it, and even if they didn't like it, I was going to ask for them to make a single copy and then give it to me. Just to keep it as a memory._

_7 years ever since that entire event. They continued the program as if nothing happened. Lucifer is still insistent on not telling me what kind of trick Diavolo pulled to make everything believable about how I was still alive. My hypothesis is that he pulled a gigantic manipulation spell in the entire realm. Though since everything works out in my favor, I don't really care what happened at the end of the day.  
Some things are better left unknown._

_Though the atmosphere in the house was awkward at first and everyone felt very unpleasant, after a couple family talks and gatherings about this, everything was settled. We decided to celebrate that this whole deal was over by ordering a bunch of food from Hell's Kitchen, McDevil, Devil Bell, so on so forth. I'm sure I put on three kilos that night. Oh, and I also adopted a cat there. Stray. Though his name is Ezra now._

_The rest of the program went smoothly, I made many memories with them during the second term of RAD... Then, the day I would leave came, and I went back to my house. The scars on my body were gone, I have to thank him for that... What? I don't wanna say his name. I prefer the german version much better. **Engel Des Todes, Azrael. Ich bin überhaupt nicht glücklich...** I studied on my german, thank you. That sentence doesn't have to do with anything at hand, but I love it. Then I graduated from highschool at 3rd place, went to a university in another place (Europe) and majored in English Language and Literature, I recently graduated from there and came back go America..._

_Anyway, where was I?_

_Oh yeah, I was about to go to a publisher my friend worked in._

_I was about to leave the house when a familiar red-head appeared inside my kitchen, right behind me when I was drinking water. I turned around, saw him, and started screaming like a banshee because I got scared. This seemed to startle him as well, since he stepped backwards. Ezra, who had been sitting on the counter, hissed and jumped away from there. He hid under the table, and knocked off the cutlery on the counter in the process._

"You know, people normally don't scream at their friend's face." Diavolo smiled and looked at the shorter's face closely for a while. Certainly, Almo had changed in the last couple of years. He'd grown taller, started to grow a nicely shaped beard, his clothes were always ironed and smelled nice, and not to mention his expensive perfume. Diavolo, on the other hand, looked same as ever. Nothing had changed about him. He was dressed more casual, and that was the only difference.

"Well, normal friends don't show up in my house, unannounced, and stand right behind me."

"Well... You got a point. But I have some news. Do you have anything urgent to do?"

"In about 3 hours. Take a seat." He gestured to the table on the middle of the room and gave his usual smile, kinda fake but funny at the same time. Diavolo checked out the table for a moment before sitting down, and shifted in there. He looked like a chicken trying to find the best position to warm up it's eggs. "Getting comfortable, I see." He snorted, and sat down in front of him.

"I'm used to sitting on comfortable chairs and couches." Diavolo shrugged, and a sigh followed soon after. Whatever that was on his mind, it was obvious that it troubled him. But Almo had no intention of asking. Delaying bad news was a habit of his, unfortunately. He was more than happy with giving him time to speak. "...I remember you asking why the trial is taking so long, since they already confessed." He said after 2 minutes of insufferable silence. Almo nodded in response lazily, and the prince continued to speak.

"Lucifer is trying to learn the motive. He keeps on delaying the trial results because of that. I told him to let it go hundreds of times, but he doesn't listen. He keeps saying that 'Barbatos is incapable of defying me', and pressuring him whenever he can... Barbatos looks like he is going to die any second whenever he does that."

"...And your reason of being here?" He said nonchalantly, as if he didn't care about it at all. It was just a minor inconvenience, a waste of time that he didn't care about. Diavolo was surprised to see him so calm about it, and this whole reaction was weird on his side. Almo played with the beads od the cutely decorated table cloth on the table, twisting and turning them to himself. He wasn't staring at his face. Was he simply out of sympathy for the butler, or just didn't show it?

"...I was going to ask you to pass judgement on them and decide their punishment." Almo's eyes twitched and fixated on the prince's face at that, staring at him instensely without raising his face. He looked for a sign of lie, penetrating his skin and carving deep inside his heart. "You have many years left to live, but that is nothing compared to how long trials can get in Devildom. I want you to decide this for yourself so you won't die with uncertainty, or any regrets."

"You speak as if I am going to die tomorrow."

Diavolo spoke with a flat tone and a straight face. "You could. I don't have anyone to tell me what is going to happen tomorrow. Not anymore."

Almo stared down at the table once again, unable to keep eye contact. His head was full of tangled wires and strings, waiting to be untangled and made into a straight line. He let go of the bead underneath his right index finger and put his hands between his thighs, and leaned forward. As if he wanted to become a small ball and dissappear into the ground. It was impossible to untangle this loop of silenced emotions and censored thoughts he kept inside for 7 years. Instead of talking to anyone. 

He tried hard to restrain these strange thoughts, like what would've happened it no one knew who he was. And if Barbatos didn't realize he was _that_. If he didn't listen to that person's advice and made himself appear like another entity, a person instead of a mindless object with two sharp ears and a tail. His mind was foggy some nights. The beating organ on the left side of his chest disgusted him. He wanted to rip it out, just like the youngest did, and present it to Diavolo as a meal, just like the butler had allegedly planned. The organ that thumped a celestial blood inside his body digusted him, so much that he wanted to puke. 

Each time he felt and heard it thump, he remembered that he was once dead. A skeleton underground who's skin has already melted and organs rotted, a food to many bacterias and bugs. One with the earth, a useless, forgettable object. White bones stained with dirt and weird liquids, smelly and germy, some parts so broken that the bone marrow was visible. The soft tendons, joints that crackled like a pair of keys whenever they moved. With two holes in his eyes, and a small residue of eye nerves and flesh left deep down inside them. Bugs and larvae crawling on it, an empty ribcage, a rotting spine. He had become the food of thousands of insects, deep down in the ground.

He realizes how disgusting his body is, by nature. He became a clean freak. He lost hair because of how frequently he washed it, his skin would become pink from scrubbing it so much. He avoided sweating or crying with all his might, showered at least 2 times a day. He cleaned his nails and never touched anywhere without gloves on. He changed his clothes so much to the point he would have a giant pile of landury waiting for him 4 days into the week, despite of living by himself. Getting sick, whether it's a flu or stomach virus, or something wrong with his intestines, was out of the question. 

He would become worse in each day, pass out from stress, and spend his time in the hospital. Which happened very rare. He didn't want to be around sneezing and coughing people. He paid perhaps a bit too much attention to his oral hygiene, to the point he would purposefully eat fast and little, then immedietly run to the restroom to get rid of those disgusting residues inside his mouth. His gums woule bleed at how frequent and hard they were being brushed. Physical contact was a big no-no. He wanted nothing to do with anyone, and felt like murdering someone at the thought of it. His hands were always wounded, puffy, cold and painful from the amount of water they endured. 

And summers were the worst. He would avoid going outside under any circumstances. He didn't want to sweat, or be together with other people. He was allowing Diavolo inside his house, simply because he sensed that he was... Clean. In some way. He wasn't sure, but he felt a bit more comfortable with him. His house was always in perfect temperature. He lacked any sort of excitement or ups and downs in his life that would cause him to _stain_ himself in any way. Accept the dirtiness that came with being born as a human. Though he found himself staring at his shoes every so often, and the small dog hairs on the left side of his jacket. 

It was a bit of an irony, considering he let his cat climb all over him and get on the kitchen counter. But unlike him, the cat was clean. He always smelled wonderful, and the white and grey parts of his fluffy fur was never stained. Always perfectly clean and shiny. But dogs? Erm... No. He wasn't a dog person. He got up abruptly and brought a lint roller with him, under his curious eyes. Diavolo stared at the lint roller, then back at him, confused. "You have dog hair on you." The human says as a matter of fact, and pushes the lint roller agganist him.

"I'm sorry. I was playing fetch with Cerberus, and he got overly excited." Diavolo smiled, and Almo chuckled at the scene that popped up inside his head. Cerberus was 3 times of a regular human, and even taller wen ig stood up on two legs. But Diavolo always managed to bring out the puppy inside him. While he used the lint roller, Almo sat down back in his place, satisfied and a bit more comfortable. Though his mind was still racing. The whole reason his life had been stressful and miserable this past 7 years, his clean freak nature, and the nights he spent in vain while he looked up at the ceiling blankly was horrible. 

Even though he came back to his original form, he wanted nothing to do with it. But at the same time, he wanted things to be... Normal. Regular. A scenerio in which everyone is happy and smiling. Everyone is forgiven. They go on with their lives in ease, without any worry in their heads. If he never existed, if he just lived as a cat with Barbatos and Stray, and never revealed himself, if he just... 

Stayed the same...

Barbatos would've been happy with his cat, and live his life as normal.  
Beelzebub would've never experienced this much pain about his twin.  
Lucifer would've never spend the last years with anger and frustration.

No one would be this... Bitter. 

He stared back into the table, and felt his head weighing heavy on his neck as the clock ticked. He swallowed, and tried to thinl of an answer through the knots in his brain. The table cloth got closer, the sounds went further from his ears, almost echoing in another room. Diavolo's figure became blurry, and his head thumped louder. Instinctively, he put a hand over his eyes and took a deep breath. He wasn't going to cry and ruin his cleanliness. Stain himself with tears and mucus. Shorten his lifespan by being weak. Diavolo sounded concerned when he asked if he was fine, to which the humab nodded silently.

He couldn't deal with this anymore.

His hand slid down to his mouth as he spoke, his glassy eyes holding a different expression. The small, yet elegant pact mark on his artery, his pulse point on his neck, started to glow black and send an unholy energy accorss the entire room. Diavolo frowned as his did the same. He had never done something like this before, and it was obvious he wasn't doing it on purpose. Perhaps the magical and emotional power within his veins had become too much, and he was trying to get rid of some of it by activating a command.

"Release them." He said and the pact mark shone even darker, the veins on his toned neck becoming visible. "And then make them beg for forgiveness from me. Make them fall on their knees in front of the human that has made pacts with the strongest demons in Hell, including their future king. Hear my command , The Lords Of All Demons, Diavolo, to go ahead and fulfill the wish your master has given thou."

The darkness in the room died down after a while, and Diavolo bowed his head with a sigh. "...You did not have to give me an order for that."

"You heard me... I wanted to make that you would actually do it as I said."

"Whatever my master desires." Diavolo spoke with a mocking tone, before opening up a portal quietly. The two sent each other one last glance before smiling, and Diavolo passed through the portal. It closed after his body left this realm, and the human watched after him. Silence ensued after his leave, and the human man started to chuckle to himself, breaking the silence like a sharp, fillet knife. Peeling and slicing precisely. 

His chuckles continued, and he threw his head back, with his darling cat by his side. It cocked it's head to the side and watched him quietly.

"Ah... Ezra. Du kannst nicht glauben, wie wütend ich bin, aber ich bin auch glücklich. Ihn unter meinen Füßen zu haben... It is a great pleasure of mine indeed. Let's get you some food now, shall we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used 3 seperate translations and they all gave me the same thing. The sentences are;
> 
> Engel Des Todes, Azrael: Angel of Death, Azrael.
> 
> Ich bin überhaupt nicht glücklich; I am not happy at all.
> 
> Ah... Ezra. Du kannst nicht glauben, wie wütend ich bin, aber ich bin auch glücklich. Ihn unter meinen Füßen zu haben... : Ah... Ezra. You cannot understand how angry I am, but I am happy too. To have him under my feet...
> 
> Honestly fuck translation at this point. I'm sorry if i made any person with knowledge on german cringe. I only know Turkish and English • 👄 •
> 
> Anyway. I am glad that people seem to like this story. It started off as something cute but...  
> Here we are.  
> We all saw how that played out.
> 
> Thank you for reading, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> I think Barbatos can talk to animals? Idk, but he won't be able to in this fic.


End file.
